Reservation Road

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: October 19th, 2007 (limited)

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning 

Directed by: Terry George (Hotel Rwanda)

Premise: A compelling tale of the lure of revenge and the power of redemption. The drama revolves around two fathers whose families and lives tragically converge with the death of a child. In the aftermath, Ethan and Dwight each react in unexpected ways as their families struggle to cope and an emotional reckoning looms.

[Pubrick]

In the Garage.

[Sleepless]

SOME SPOILERS...

I saw this last night after my original plans were scuppered, and it wasn't too bad. To be honest, I had some reservations (sorry) about this film - it's typical oscar-bait of the stagnant variety featuring previous nominees and overwrought emotions... The sort of "worthy" trash studios bang out this sort of time every year. And in that respect it did exactly what it said on the tin. That is, there are no surprises. The film started off predictably enough, we know we had so get through the catalyst of the hit-and-run. But one it gets going, it was quite good. I quite like Mark Ruffalo, he played the balance of his character quite convincingly if simplistically here I thought. Joaquin Phoenix meanwhile was stuck with what the writer/director obviously thought was the "oscar-worthy" role of a grieving father who sinks deeper into a dark obsession. And that's where the film went wrong. The first half was very good, when it was concentrating on the family's grief, and on the guilt and choices made by Ruffalo's character. But then the gets a bit contrived when Phoenix hires Ruffalo's character to find his son's killer (i.e. Ruffalo is hired to find himself). Those most generous when it comes to suspending their disbelief will probably hang in there dispite that, but that's when the coincidences get down right retarded. As it happens, Ruffalo's ex-wife is Phoenix's daughter's piano teacher, and all their kids go to school together.... It just didn't jive man. From there on the second half of the movie gets really boring really fast as the focus shifts from Ruffalo's guilt and how he tries to cover up the accident and observe the consequences of his actions, to Phoenix getting addicted to a chatroom for relatives of hit-and-run accidents, not being there for his family, to him solving the puzzle and toying with Ruffalo's guilt to suddenly decided to murder in revenge. Dumb. What seemed most stupid to me is that for a film whose central theme is consequences, to have one scene where the always overwrought Jennifer Connelly locks her husband out of the house following an argument and their individual breakdowns, telling him to leave her and her house, then suddenly they're back sitting together like nothing happened. Now, don't get me wrong, I realise that mature people can argue and still love each other, still be best friends just moments later, but to me it just reaked of laziness in the way it was handled in this film. To make matters worse, just minutes later comes the greatest coincidence in the entire movie, and the one which triggers Phonenix's ultimate rampage: in the car park of the school where both their kids go, Phoenix overhears Ruffalo calling his boy's name (supposedly echoing what happened the night of the accident, although I don't remember that, could just be me though). But also that Ruffalo is slinking about in the shadows wearing exactly the same outfit that he wore that regretful night, when he knows full well that Phoenix will be there, and probably put two-and-two together. Frankly there is far too much coincidence here that we are asked to buy into, and it ruins a perfectly passable, if not exactly oscar-worthy film experience. Why have all these coincidences to have Ruffalo come face to face with the family of the boy he killed? Why not have it that because of his guilt he becomes involved in the investigation somehow by his own choosing - that's a trait noted in murders from various cases, why not explore it in this instance? It would be far moreinteresting that the sloppy devices employed here. Alternatively, rather than work on over-drive to try and link the characters in oh-so-many ways, why not just have it that the two of them already knew each other anyway? That would have been far more plausible, it would have notched the risks up all round - afterall the 'incident' in question was an accident, so he wouldn't have known who he hit until he saw it on the news anyway. Urgh... Okay, rambling assessment over. Bascially this was a film I would have been happy to miss, I thought it would have just been a basic paint-by-numbers of a medicore emotional thriller drama doing all it could for your concideration. It was less than that.