Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
CAUTION! This is a cautionary tale, not a "feel-good" movie, July 7, 2002
This one kept me riveted throughout; I swear I didn't exhale until the last five minutes. No, I didn't see the ending coming, but it makes absolute sense given the ficton created therein (Roger Ebert is full of PRUNES when he says that it "flies apart in the last 30 minutes;" it not only works, it's the only way the film CAN end and maintain its integrity). The performances are spot-on (including Joan Cusack; hello? The woman is allowed to do something other than "zany" roles-- especially when she does so damned well with a role like this one), the plot is complex and yes, far-fetched, but pulls you in and keeps you in a stranglehold. But as I titled my review, do NOT watch this movie if you have to see good conquer evil/hope springs eternal etc.-- you WON'T LIKE IT. It is good drama, an excellent thriller, and while the nods to Ruby Ridge (NOT Waco,as has been suggested) and Oklahoma City made it timely when it was released, the events of 9-11-01 make it even more disturbing now. Remember, when we believe these acts to be the acts of individuals, acting alone, it only helps us to regain our sense of security; the truth may be more than we can bear.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic and Shocking!, November 6, 2007
This is a movie that I think everyone should watch. We watched it some years ago and several times since. Everytime, it is impactful. I started thinking about this movie recently when reading about more terror propaganda in the UK. I was reminded of an article in the papers that described one of the 7/7 bombers as just a "normal, average guy" who had a regular job and loved soccer, "just like many other young Britons, his neighbors said".
That really hits home when you watch Arlington Road. Everybody should be aware that THEY, too, can be manipulated to "carry the bomb into the building." The references to Ruby Ridge and The OK bombing in the movie reflect the time it was made/released, but it is even more meaningful after 911.
The movie may seem to begin a bit slowly - that was my initial impression - and it was only afterward that I realized that this was a perfect metaphor for how "normal life" can totally mask what is really going on. But don't worry, it soon grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you go until the final, horrifying revelations at the end.
Jeff Bridges plays his part very well - a guy so blinded by emotion that he is putty in the hands of cold-blooded manipulators. Bridges (as the hero) thinks he's got a handle on what's going on, but in fact, this is hubris. One could say the same for most "conspiracy theorists." You only know what "they" want you to know or figure out.
Some people think the plot is too complex, too far-fetched, but I think that's not the case. You don't need much imagination to see how such an elaborate set-up could easily be achieved in anyone's life. There are plenty of movies that talk about that aspect of things. The only thing is, they all make it seem like such dramatic, high adventure, that we forget that it is the mundane, the ordinary, the ho-hum existence, that veils truly evil things.
The psychological slamming is all there at the end and that's exactly it; how it MUST be in real life. Life is so "ordinary, so boring, so tedious, so commonplace, that it lulls us into complacency. And that is undoubtedly what the filmmaker was trying to convey... that sense of ordinariness, mundane life that covers another reality of conspiracy and evil-doing.
For example, only AFTER the end of the movie do you realize that the bleeding kid at the beginning was all part of the set-up, that the terrorist/parents actually used their own child as bait, and even caused a severe injury to the child in order to make that bait more compelling. Was the kid brain-washed or terrorized? Probably. What kind of monsters would do that to a child?
And that makes the final scene even more chilling, where the terrorists stand there in front of the house for sale and wear their "mask of sanity," saying the world is getting too scary...
Yes, the good guys die and the bad guys continue on... but then, isn't that reality?
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The scariest movie ever made in broad daylight, October 29, 2006
Noon. A suburb of Washington, DC, a street dotted with houses just a shade too small to be McMansions. No one is around.
Wait --- here comes someone. A boy. White, of course. About 9 years old. Dressed in jeans and high-top sneakers. Walking unsteadily in the middle of the street. Lurching, really.
And now we see why: blood dots his sneakers, makes a trail on the pavement.
Luckily, a resident comes along --- Michael Faraday (yes, he has the same name as the great scientist who experimented with electricity and magnetism). He scoops the boy up, rushes him to the hospital. Eventually, the boy's parents show up, grateful beyond measure that the rocket their son set off wasn't more powerful --- and that they have such a good neighbor.
And now we see the opening credits: distorted photos of suburban life. They look anything but peaceful. Clever movie lovers will recall shots like this in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet." Clearly, something evil thrives alongside the barbeques.
But how could that be? Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a history professor who teaches college courses in terrorism. He's widowed --- his wife was an FBI agent, killed in a botched raid --- and only recently dating a graduate student (Hope Davis). All he wants is to raise his nine-year-old son and find some peace.
And the neighbors, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins) and his wife Cheryl (Joan Cusack) couldn't be nicer. They sense Faraday's loneliness, and they take steps --- inviting him over, including his son in their family outings.
Until, one day.....right, the Langs are too perfect. Faraday senses that when a letter for Lang is wrongly delivered to his mailbox. It's forwarded from the University of Pennyslvania., Odd. Didn't Lang say he went to Kansas State?
And so it begins: a neighbor furtively investigating his neighbor. And finding that there's something wrong in his story, that he may not be who he says he is.
At the same time, Faraday is teaching his class. That bombing in St. Louis (really, the Oklahoma City bombing). Scary, wasn't it? But remember how much better you felt the next day, when the FBI produced a single suspect: "We want one man, one name, and we want it fast because we want our security back."
Here's the problem with Farraday: He may teach terrorism, but he's a lousy detective. That is, his suspect knows what's going on. And confronts him. There's a scene in Faraday's back yard that's as menacing as any conversation on film: Faraday looking at a college year book that proves Lang has changed his name, Lang sneaking up on him. And then the reversal of expectation: It's Lang who's mad. Because he has an explanation, a damned good one. And if Faraday only had the decency to ask....
What's happening? Faraday can't tell. Is Lang really a structural engineer working on a mall in Reston? Or is he a leader of a terrorist cell plotting mass murder in Washington?
Then Faraday's girlfriend sees....Then Faraday's girlfriend rushes to a pay phone...Then Faraday's girlfriend turns around....
The secret of thrillers, Alfred Hitchcock explained, is to give people a fear bigger than the fears they live with every day. Movies with special effects and ridiculous plots do this poorly. Movies based on brilliant "what ifs?" make you pee your pants. Like "Rosemary's Baby" --- what if a man makes a deal with Satan? Or "Arlington Road" --- what if your neighbor is Satan?
There are critics who have called "Arlington Road" overheated and improbable --- especially the end. Well, it fooled me. And terrified me. The cinematography, the music, the rising paranoia of Bridges, the spookily friendly Robbins and Cusack: all the elements work together to make you scared of parking lots, mini-vans, the repairman outside your house.
As for the end, it forces you to reexamine everything. Was it just good fortune that the Langs were Faraday's neighbors? That letter in Faraday's mailbox --- did the mailman do that? Hey, what about their injured son at the beginning --- could that be...? For God's sake, where did this plot begin?
When it's over, you'll sit in the dark and shake. "Arlington Road" is that good.
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