Arlington Road

December 11, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 119 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

DVD QuickTake

If you’ve never seen this movie you owe it to yourself to correct that as soon as possible. Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins turn in excellent performances, and the writing is quite good. In fact, the story is one of the best I’ve seen in quite awhile.

Jeff Bridges plays a college professor who teaches American history, specifically terrorism in America. After his wife, who was an FBI agent, was killed during a raid on a suspected terrorist his class becomes a way for him to honor her memory. Tim Robbins is the guy across the street, just a neighbor who Jeff has never met. That is until he finds Tim’s son walking down the street with his hand severely injured and rushes him off to the hospital.

In the aftermath the two start to become buddies, but something isn’t quite right about Tim. He seems to be hiding something, something ominous. Has Jeff been teaching a class on terrorism too long? Is he starting to see things that just aren’t there? That’s part of the fun in this movie, watching Jeff put together clues, become an amateur sleuth, and so on.

The movie really is quite original, the previews didn’t do it justice. Of course, the preview didn’t give away the ending, and we really appreciate that.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, DVD, Drama, Jeff Bridges, Joan Cusack, R, Thriller, Tim Robbins