Popcorn Reviews With Cybèle: Arlington Road 

By Cybèle Elaine Werts  
CybeleW@aol.com

Popcorn Kernel Rating (four possible): 3.75 Kernels for fast action, intriguing plot twists, and Tim Robbins.

If the cinematography in the cool opening credits of Arlington Road didn’t flip my switch, the opening sequence of the film surely would have. Although the latter rolled around in a bit of a dreamy haze, it was the perfect mysterious start to what would be a pretty good jaunt through the throes of terrorism, mystery neighbors, and bombs. I’m no car chase blow-up scene kinda girl, but the action was well paced throughout this film except for a few erratic periods of short unexplained inactivity.

Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a professor of terrorism, so steeped into his work that he takes his students on field trips, even to the place where his FBI wife was killed in a Ruby Ridge kind of bloody mess. It’s been a few years since, so he’s seeing Brook Wolfe (Hope Davis) who gets to play the straight woman (and surgary in her prettiness), but who has some of the best dry comedic lines in the film. Through a combination of accident and nosey parkerness, Michael comes to believe that his neighbors Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack) are white collar terrorists. His efforts to unmask them are the story. The short version on the actors is this: Jeff Bridges is miscast. He looks unshaven and confused in this role. Hope Davis is smart, but mostly because of the excellent writing. Tim Robbins is brilliant as always; have you ever seen him in The Shawshank Redemption? Now that’s acting! Joan Cusack is, as usual, underutilized. You may recall her cute part in one of my other favorite films with Kevin Kline – In and Out. She is a funny tart actress who is pretty much stuck with the Stand By Your Terrorist Man role in this film, with only one moment where she gets to bare her teeth at poor Hope Davis.

My fellow cinemagencia (cinema & intelligencia) friend Jeff tells me that the music is by Angelo Badalamonti of Twin Peaks fame, so you can guess at the moody minor tones already. In his exalted opinion, this film is not so much a story about a decent into paranoia, but rather a realization of the paranoia within. Michael Faraday is a man waiting for an obsession to happen. I respond – is it paranoia if they really are out to get you?

Suggested Gustatory Accompaniment: Gorp, the kind of granola/nuts/candy mix that terrorists sustain themselves on when hiding out in the wilds of Camel’s Hump.

Copyright 2000