Arlington Road

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Matt R Pretty good late 90's thriller with a nice twist! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/20/24 Full Review leslie dean b This is actually a very good movie. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/04/24 Full Review Victor P A mind-blowing suspenseful thriller! Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 04/06/24 Full Review Steve D A deeply unplesent time despite the cast. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/29/24 Full Review Jd R A fever dream of imagination that only maintains a suspension of disbelief in a narrative briefly. You might be entertained between the opening scene and the point when the (ironically named) Professor Faraday becomes a full fledged conspiracy theorist about 30 minutes in. Outside of that the entire movie gives you the feeling that it was made for (and by) people who live under a rock and have a paranoid worldview that revolves entirely around themselves and emotional fringe theories based on rhetoric. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 09/24/23 Full Review Ola G Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a history professor at George Washington University specializing in terrorism. His FBI agent wife Leah died in the line of duty in a Ruby Ridge-style standoff, and Michael now lives with his 9-year-old son Grant in Reston, Virginia. He is still friends with Leah's partner Whit Carver, and is dating his former graduate student Brooke (Hope Davis). Upon finding a severely injured boy named Brady stumbling in his neighborhood, Michael rushes him to the hospital, where the wounds are determined to be caused by fireworks. Michael meets Brady's parents, structural engineer Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins) and housewife Cheryl (Joan Cusack), discovering they are his neighbors. They become friends, and their sons join the Discoverers, a Boy Scouts-style group. In casual conversation, Oliver expresses his sympathy for Leah's death by displaying potentially violent anti-government beliefs. This, and the cause of Brady's injuries, arouses suspicion in Michael. He also finds blueprints in Oliver's possession that are not for his purported building project, and receives misdirected mail suggesting Oliver lied about his college years. Brooke and Whit dismiss his concerns as paranoia. Michael takes his class on a field trip to the site where Leah was killed, and excoriates the FBI for igniting the standoff after failing to probe the besieged family. His students appear uneasy. Michael reluctantly lets Grant go to a Discoverers camp with Brady. His research reveals that Oliver was born William Fenimore and tried to blow up a Kansas post office at age 16. Oliver discovers Michael's interest and confronts him, stating that his immature act (in revenge for the government's role in his father's suicide) cost him imprisonment and a new identity to hide his past from his children, which he regrets. Michael appears to let the matter drop. However, Brooke later spots Oliver swapping cars and exchanging metal boxes with strangers. From a payphone, she leaves Michael a message lending validity to his suspicions, but is discovered by Cheryl... Rotten Tomatoes consensus stating; "A suspenseful thriller led by strong cast performances built around a somewhat implausible story." Roger Ebert, wrote of the film: Arlington Road is a thriller that contains ideas. Any movie with ideas is likely to attract audiences who have ideas of their own, but to think for a second about the logic of this plot is fatal. (via Wikipedia) The storyline with how well do you know your neighbour we have seen several times before. "Arlington Road" feels just like a repetition of "Blown Away" also starring Jeff Bridges with him running around screaming with a face in agony. "Arlington Road" is stretched to the limit and the tension and excitement is missing to my mind. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Arlington Road

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