Reservation Road

SCRIBE'S DEAD KID ON THE ROADSIDE REVIEW:

After this movie had ended, I knew two things for sure: (1) Bluez, who challenged us with this film, loves films dealing with moral ambiguity and the consequences of our actions, and (2) Jennifer Connelly no longer has huge breasts.

Pretty sure you can guess which of those two things disturbs me more, but let's get to the film.

Reservation Road centers around abrupt change in the lives of two families and the a bit too convenient plot contrivances...er, I mean, developments that occur as a result.

Underrated Vincent D'Onofrio for a younger generation Mark Ruffalo is the attorney with an inability to be responsible, whose love for his son and baseball are the only things keeping him going. When his ex-wife, portrayed by a suprisingly sexy Mira Sorvino, calls him for the ten-thousandth time during a Red Sox game, he feels compelled to drive like a Klansman from a Black Panther convention.

Enter Joaquin Phonenix and Connelly, the idealized white American couple of affluence with two perfect kids who are about to lose a large portion of their happiness in the form of Ruffalo's carelessly driving ass.

The kid dies, of course. I gave that much away in my review title. What results is a gripping, powerful and emotional tale of one man (Phoenix) obsessed with making his son's killer pay and another (Ruffalo) torn between turning himself in and giving his son some good memories of his screw-up dad. As time goes by and it looks like there is no chance of his getting caught, Ruffalo's character starts to lean toward letting it all pass. But Phoenix's college professor starts to remember more details about that night...

This is an extremely well-acted film. Even the kids are great, including Dakota's Fanning's lookalike sister, Elle. The only fault with this film lies in the earlier mentioned plot contrivances. What are the odds of Phoenix hiring Ruffalo as his attorney to light a fire under the cops' asses? What are the odds of Sorvino being Phoenix and Connelly's daughter's music instructor? What are the odds of Ruffalo showing up to a family function wearing the one thing that triggers a buried memory in Phoenix?

Still, the drama and the direction keep the viewer unconcerned with the less believable aspects of the story. This is, after all, a story. and it was good enough to cause me to to go to the library and borrow a copy of the novel.

(Really gettin' sick of movies about Easter Coasters, though)

***1/2 out of *****

GREEN’S INCREDIBLY GUILTY CONSCIENCE REVIEW:

This film was actually recommended for us to watch by Esther (and not Bluez this time) who thought of me while watching it because of the prominent role the Boston Red Sox play in the film and knowing that I happen to be a life-long Red Sox fan. [Thirty-three years and counting...]

How do you deal with a hit and run accident if you’re the family of the victim?
How do you deal with a hit and run accident if the victim is your child?
How do you deal with a hit and run accident if you’re the driver of the offending vehicle?

These are the questions that are raised in this film.

On one hand you have the parents, with a father (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who becomes obsessed with finding his son’s killer and the grieving mother (played by Jennifer Connolly) trying to return to normalcy and hold the rest of her family together.

On the other hand, you have the driver of the car (played by Mark Ruffalo), who tries to hide what he did while fighting feelings of incredible guilt.

The cast in this film is excellent, with the lead actors each giving wonderful, intense and dramatic performances, despite some questionable areas in the script.

I can handle that both the victim‘s family and the hit and run driver living in the same town. What I thought was a bit too coincidental was that the driver, Dwight Arno, is an attorney and that the father of the victim, Ethan Lerner, just happens to choose the law firm Arno works at for help and that Arno himself is assigned to the case. It does heighten the drama but is a bit contrived. And I totally forgot about the other two instances that scribe-o mentions above.

The ending of the film is also contrived and goes way overboard. Like we need any more tension and drama in an already emotionally heavy movie. I can understand Lerner’s grief and rage building throughout the story, imagining how I’d feel if one of my kids were killed in this way. I think I can also understand the guilt that Arno is feeling as it builds throughout the story. But the confrontation between the two at the end borders on the ridiculous.

What helps to redeem this film is that Arno was set to turn himself in before the questionable confrontation.

I do like the fact that the author of the novel that the film is based on had an active role in developing and writing the screenplay. I think that that consistency helps fully realize the author’s vision for his story as it is being transformed to the big screen.

The film is flawed but still very good.

*** out of *****