Harry here, with another look at ARLINGTON ROAD, this one from Griff. I love this movie, I feel it's one of the best paranoia films I have ever seen. And the film is courageous in it's story telling. Here's another's opinion though...
Hey Harry, as they say long time listener, first time caller. Went to a press screening of Arlington Road last night. It doesn't open for a month, so it's crazy (can't we get something like Thin Red Line early or something cool like that) that me and my press buddies got to see this screening.
I won't be a spoil sport, so I'll keep it clean from those things, but here's the summary. Jeff Bridges plays a college professor, with a hottie girlfriend (Hope Davis) and ten year old son, who through a neighborhood accident meets his neighbors who may or may not be involved in nefarious terrorism! (played by Joan Cusack and Tim Robbins). Bridges' wife was killed in a stupid government incident so he's got his issues about terrorism, and slowly becomes curious about Robbins and his mysterious past. It unfolds in a Pseudo Hitchcockian/Paculaian way. It was directed by Mark Pellington, best known for his music video work (Jeremy, the Pearl Jam video) and for the mostly straight to Video "Going all the Way." (it didn't play my town). The film is stylish, and has the Sevenish opening credit sequence (not totally derivative, but this new style seems traced to that). It's a style driven endevor that never really worked for me, but ended well.
The performers are uniformly good. Everyone in the cast are professionals, and very talented. Bridges, is as always the best everyman that a man (or woman) could hope for. He brings the film a soul I don't know if it could have had without him. Robbins and Cusack are fine, but the roles cause them to have to go from creepy to sketchy at a moments notice, and that does lead to a certain abivilance in me, after a while I say to myself there wouldn't be a movie if they weren't bad guys. Davis is also good in the now cliched role of the unsupportive girlfriend (why don't girlfriends ever believe there hero boyfriends in movies like this until the third or forth reel?) All four deliver interesting performances and give the film it's depth.
The direction is uber-stylish, and the lighting design is where the director put a lot of his energy to creep us out, some of it works, but some of it doesn't, and certain sequences fell flat for me, because the film was trying too hard with its expressionistic lighting (which didn't jibe well with the realistic lighting of the majority of the film), that I found myself giggling because it so didn't work. What was most disapointing about the film was that the characters were interesting, and unfortunately the film had to tell a story, and that was going to get in the way of these people who were quite interesting, and eventually the mode of the plot forces the film into it's terrorist acts. Unlike a Simple Plan, one of the year's best, the characters did not get to breathe or gain that life that Raimi's characters did, and unfortunately certain scenes came off as plot driven and not character driven, which was disapointing, because they didn't have to be, and the mechanics of the storyline (what are your neighbors really like?) gets in the way, or at least the film either needed to be tighter or looser for me to love it more. The details were good, but once I felt that connection when the plot contrivances came in, they didn't play natural.
SEMI SPOILER ALERT
But unlike most films of late that start well, and fall apart, the films has certain convictions and ends better than it starts. But this ending one could see as a cop from earlier films (Paralax View or Seven), and I was also reminded of the Vanishing. I won't reveal the ending, but if you've seen those films, that may give too much away.
OKAY YOU'RE CLEAR NOW
It's a mixed bag film, and it looks finished, so I don't think there is much that will be changed in the next month. If you like the actors you may find enough in the film to find it entertaining, but on a whole, I was disapointed, because it showed me enough of these people to not want to have to watch the film the film became. Maybe it's not fair for me to say that, but I can't help but feel a little disapointed. Everyone involved has enough energy and talent to do something better, but this feels uneven to me, though I liked it more than the similar Seven. I didn't like Seven, because it's conclusion meant nothing to me, so the fact that I don't like that film, may mean that those who did like Seven will like this, but I wouldn't want to specualte at any greater lengths (I also loved Tsui Hark's brilliant Knock Off, if that helps you gauge my tastes, which nobody seemed to get, but even if you didn't like that film, Hark is a genuis of cinema, but that is a different review. On a serious note, I do love Hawks and Lubtisch and I could go on and on about the old moveis I love from Swing time to the Passion of Joan of Ark, so I know my cinematic shit, as it were) Unfortunately the film was not helped by the fact that the art of projection is one lost on all the chain theaters.
I'M GOING TO BITCH A MOAN FOR A MOMENT HERE
Projectionist used to have unions in my state. Now there aren't any union members. The kids who flip the switch couldn't tell 2.35 from 1.33. I've seen four films in the past two days, and only one of them had no flaws in projection. The first reel of Arlington Road looked like it had been dipped in Popcorn butter, and it took the five minutes to get the aspect ratio right. The bottom half the film was out of focus. What's going on? If this happens during the Star Wars film, I'm gonna shoot someone. But the fact that clearly no one cares about this lost art means I can't object to my friends who hate going to the theater, as of late it just seems to get worse and worse.
I love Sam, and I miss him dearly, so call me Griff.
