Like every tragic story, Reservation Road starts out with idyllic images: watching a child’s music recital, a father and son watching the Boston Red Sox, skipping rocks across water’s surface; but there is a dread that underlies these opening scenes: the darkness, a late night, a cell phone ringing, a boy letting fireflies out of a jar. It’s a horse pill dose of foreshadowing, and sets the tone for director Terry George’s take on John Burnham Schwartz’s book of the same name.

The movie focuses on two families whose sensibilities experience an upheaval when a young boy is killed during a hit and run accident.

Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) is a happily married college professor with two children. Within a few seconds, his life becomes a never-ending struggle between trying to keep his family intact and a growing need to find the mysterious driver that killed his son, who continues to elude the police. Ethan’s actions are controlled, slow, and deliberate. You can feel his growing emotions as they become tumultuous indications of an angry man ready to exact revenge.

As Ethan’s wife, Grace Learner (Jennifer Connelly) mourns the loss of her son, but quietly picks up the pieces and tries to move forward despite the pain. Connelly cries and breaks out understandable emotional hysterics, but I never feel close to her character. Unlike her multi-faceted, Academy Award-winning role Alicia Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Grace is very one sided; I feel for her loss and empathize, but she feels distant. Grace is an anguished cliche that never blossoms into a tangible character.

Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), a divorced dad and lawyer, tries to reconcile his deathly actions with the possibility of the consequences. He is on edge and suspicious. From the first scene at the ballpark, you get a hint that his life is in the gutter. He’s trying to be a part of his son’s life while constantly disappointing his ex-wife (Mira Sorvino). Dwight’s pace is nerve-wracking, filled with staccato-intent gestures and words.

Ethan and Dwight are Yin and Yang. Their lives intertwine into a messy configuration. Phoenix and Ruffalo are brilliant actors and the rest of the cast are no shrinking violets, but they are all unable to pull this movie out of a predictable state. George’s momentum reaches a formidable climax that garners little emotion. The director’s past films, In the Name of the Father and Hotel Rwanda, were intricate examinations of the human psyche, how far it can be pushed and the ability for the protagonist to find strength in the emotional mayhem. The screenplay by George and Schwartz allow you to feel undertones of these themes in Reservation Road, but you end up feeling jilted.

Reservation Road is an intense drama, a character study that drifts in and out of loss, revenge, and an obsession for vengeance and the dilemma of wanting to do the right thing without losing everything. The movie’s pace is uneven. You’re torn between the tempered heaviness of Phoenix’s character and the frenetic madness that swallows Dwight. It is engaging, but in the end, is it worth it to go through this emotional roller coaster and not get anything out of it? No.

Grade: C

RESERVATION ROAD, Rated R for violence, adult content, and adult language.

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino.

Directed by Terry George.

Screenplay by Terry George and John Burnham Schwartz.

Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Photo Source:

New York Times

MSNBC