... Is it just the case that Faraday is starting to become obsessed or is there a genuinely dark side to his neighbour?
For some reason, I had it in my mind that Arlington Road was one of those strange David Lynch dramas that would make absolutely no sense from start to finish. I was therefore ... Read review
It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no ide...
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It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no ide...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 2 to 4 weeks...
Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) and his 10 year old son Grant (Spencer Treat Clark) are ... more
both trying to come to terms with the loss two years earlier of Michael's wife Grant's mother. When they befriend a family from across the road things seem to get...
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Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) and his 10 year old son, Grant (Spencer Clark) are both ... more
trying to come to terms with the loss two years earlier of Michael's wife, Grant's mother. When they befriend a family from across the road, things seem to get a lit...
It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut,Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the film-maker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward and things usually end badly.Arlington Roadbegins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalised reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbour's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behaviour. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for a while, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. ButArlington Roadpossesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut,Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the film-maker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward and things usually end badly.Arlington Roadbegins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalised reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbour's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behaviour. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for a while, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. ButArlington Roadpossesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy
Postage & Packaging:£2.69 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut,Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the film-maker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward and things usually end badly.Arlington Roadbegins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalised reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbour's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behaviour. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for a while, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. ButArlington Roadpossesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
It's easy to understand whyArlington Roadsat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, ... more
the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut,Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the film-maker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward and things usually end badly.Arlington Roadbegins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalised reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbour's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behaviour. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for a while, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. ButArlington Roadpossesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy
Postage & Packaging:free Super Saver Delivery Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Advantages: Interesting and unpredictable Disadvantages: Irritating and implausible
...it in my mind that Arlington Road was one of those strange David Lynch dramas that would make absolutely no sense from start to finish. I was therefore quite surprised to find that the film was actually a fairly interesting, if not rather frustrating thriller.
Arlington Road is a film with a point. It is interested solely in the concept of terrorism and although it was made in 1999, it now feels more appropriate than ever. But this ... ...interested the creative team behind Arlington Road and so they have crafted a tale that sets about informing us how and why these people do what they do.
Michael Faraday is not your average American citizen. Not only has he lost his wife in an incident that he believes should never have happened, but also he blames government policy for putting his wife there in the first place. Secondly, he has a vocational interest in terrorism and ... more
What do you do if you believe that the man living next door to you is a terrorist? He claims that those blueprints on his desk relate to a legitimate project that he is working on, but you suspect otherwise. How do you convince the world, your friends and your family that an otherwise normal man is capable of murder on an enormous scale?
Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a college lecturer, running courses in the study of terrorism. His wife, an accomplished FBI agent, has been gunned down in the line of duty, leaving him alone to care for his only child, Grant. Whilst driving home one day, he sees a child behaving strangely in the middle of the road and when he stops to investigate, he finds that the boy has been badly wounded in some kind of accident. The child’s parents turn out to be the couple next door, and embarrassed by his failure to be friendly towards them, Faraday sets about building bridges with the pleasant couple. But his rather suspicious nature very quickly starts to pick up on things. The neighbour, Oliver Lang (Tim Robbins) claims that he is working on a project in a local shopping mall, but Faraday believes that the plans on his table look more like those of an office building. Is it just the case that Faraday is starting to become obsessed or is there a genuinely dark side to his neighbour?
For some reason, I had it in my mind that Arlington Road was one of those strange David Lynch dramas that would make absolutely no sense from start to finish. I was therefore quite surprised to find that the film was actually a fairly interesting, if not rather frustrating thriller.
Arlington Road is a film with a point. It is interested solely in the concept of terrorism and although it was made in 1999, it now feels more appropriate than ever. But this film isn’t about terrorism involving extreme Middle Eastern groups. Arlington Road looks at the increasing occurrence of homegrown terrorists, American citizens who take it upon themselves to commit acts of atrocity upon other American citizens for reasons that are often completely unknown.
Society works on the basis of boundaries, both physically and morally. It works on the basis that no matter how frustrated we get we will generally stick within those boundaries. Terrorism occurs when people are no longer prepared to do this as a result of the way that they have been treated. But one of the strangest things for the average man to struggle with is to understand how seemingly normal people are driven to commit acts of terrorism. This is clearly something that interested the creative team behind Arlington Road and so they have crafted a tale that sets about informing us how and why these people do what they do.
Michael Faraday is not your average American citizen. Not only has he lost his wife in an incident that he believes should never have happened, but also he blames government policy for putting his wife there in the first place. Secondly, he has a vocational interest in terrorism and imparts his thoughts and believes on knowledge-thirsty students. As a character, he is therefore extremely interesting and a likely, if not rather unpredictable hero. Oliver Lang is obvious. He is what you might call a “glaring hooter.” He is so normal, so nice and pleasant that it seems almost painfully obvious that there is more to him than meets the eye. But neither character quite fulfils the destiny that you expect.
Initially, Arlington Road has a very dark feel to it. The opening scenes are both sinister and disturbing, in such a way that the audience is quickly drawn in and for the first 30-40 minutes, you aren’t quite sure what you have stumbled into. This comes as no real surprise when you discover that the director went on to make The Mothman Prophecies – a similarly eerie film. Sadly, this momentum didn’t seem to be fulfilled and I was really disappointed with the way things started to go. Characters started to change – or was it that they were just starting to show their true colours? Things started to become less feasible. People started to do the sort of things that people only do in thrillers, with desperation and extreme behaviour starting to become the norm. I actually found myself quite irritated and for a while I was losing interest in the whole thing. I had concluded that Arlington Road had started to lose the plot.
But as the film drew to its conclusion, I decided that I was probably wrong and that the hysterics and strange behaviour were entirely purposeful. It’s not until you’ve seen the entire finished product that you realise the significance of such things. Arlington Road cannot really be analysed in a conventional scene-by-scene way. You have to take in the whole thing, and then make up your mind as to whether you liked it or not. The only trouble is, my attention span doesn’t really work like this.
I didn’t like the characters. I found Michael Faraday intensely irritating and his willingness to believe the worst a little implausible. Neither did I understand some of the statements that he was trying to make whilst lecturing his students and there was an awkwardness about it that never felt quite right to me. Bridges gives his heart to the piece but is just TOO enthusiastic about it and ends up being rather irritating. Oliver Lang’s character is classic movie villain material – all smiles and niceness in public, but the creepy wife (Joan Cusack, eerily good) and unnatural kindness clearly don’t bode well. This means that he starts to end up like a pantomime character and certainly some scenes involving his wife inspire you to shout out, “Behind you!”
Nonetheless, you can’t help but feel entertained by the finished product. The climax works well and overall, the idea is really rather good. I’d have liked to have seen more of the darkness introduced at the beginning, but as a study in urban terrorism, Arlington Road is interesting, for sure. The film is rated 15 for some slightly disturbing scenes but otherwise would interest most.
Advantages: Great thriller Disadvantages: Some plot-holes
When Michael Faraday returns home one day, he finds a young boy wondering down the middle of the road with his hand bathed in blood. Rushing him to the hospital, Michael saves the boy's life and is later thanked by his parents, the Langs. Michael gets to know Oliver and Cheryl Lang very well after that and they quickly become good friends. However, he soon begins to show concern for Oliver's's interest in his son, and, after some research, he discovers ... ...More research suggests that Lang, who has some terrorist activities in his past, may still be very much involved in terrorism. Can Faraday work out what it is that Lang is planning and stop him before it is too late? Jeff Bridges plays Michael Faraday, in what I think is one of his best roles. Faraday is a University Professor, and lost his FBI wife three years before when she was working on a case. He now has a girlfriend and is trying hard to move ...
sunmeilan 10.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arlington Road (DVD)
Advantages: Dark, Different Disadvantages: Buy the DVD, get no extras, ain't it great?
How well do you know the people you call your friends?, strange way for me to open up a review of a movie doncha think? well this is the whole basis of the movie 'Arlington Road' only instead of taking it that you just don't know that much - the creators of the movie take it that one step further. So a little bit of background for the movie, we open seeing a young child stumbling disorientatedly along the middle of a road hearing a multitude of voices ... ...few feet behind him and this is where we're introduced to one of the main characters of the movie as Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) emerges from the car and tries to get the boys attention. Before long it becomes blatantly obvious that the boy is seriously injured, and so Michael begins to help the child, before taking him to hospital. It is here at the hospital where we first meet Michaels neighbours - Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl (Joan Cusack) ...
Angelus 25.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arlington Road (DVD)
Advantages: Very tense thriller, great acting and unexpected ending Disadvantages: Need to be in the mood - a bit dark and morose
...staggers home.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is Arlington Road, an unsuspecting ordinary road in a quiet suburb in Washington DC. A road where anyone of us might live, a road that has very few exciting events, but that is all about to change….
Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) plays a widower and father to 10 year old Grant. Michael’s wife was an FBI agent and was killed in a terrorist bombing. ... ...over the loss of his wife. Grant can’t accept that this new woman might become a permanent part of their lives. Michael teaches terrorism history classes at the local University and since his wife’s death has started to border on the edges of paranoia. -------------------------------------------------------------------
As the boy continues his awkward journey a car comes around the corner. The boy is still walking away from the car and ...
bandoo 20.03.2001 (20.05.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arlington Road (DVD)
Advantages: Un-Hollywood, Tense, Twists, Acting Disadvantages: May be far fetched for some
...those around him. Arlington Road has some very good twists in it's tale throughout and it also helps that the situation is believable to a degree. Some people might not buy into the fact that terrosirsts would come in the shape of a normal family on an american suburban street. But then again it's the perfect cover for such operations. Bridges character at one stage makes a good point about the people who are blamed for some terrorist acts. He makes ... ...the film you are waiting for the usual good guy/bad guy confrontation that obviously ends up being okay in the end. I'm glad to say that Arlington Road doesn't actually do this and actually goes in the opposite direction. I won't say how but I think you'd be generally surprised. ...
utero 26.06.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arlington Road (DVD)
Advantages: Terrific acting, terrific plotline, intense, suspenseful, full of twists Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too dark for some
This film seemed to be released to little fanfare and it was only when I was circling the bargain basement bin that I came across this. After turning the case round to read many of the praise worthy quotes from different publications and critics I decided that this would be well worth taking a chance on. The plot for this story is essentially that Jeff Bridges plays the part of a teacher on terrorism who is still haunted by his wife dying as a result ... ...he sees this kid staggering along in the middle of the road, blood is dripping from his arm profusely and with no time to lose rushes him to the hospital. It at this point where he is introduced to the parents of the boy and indeed his new neighbours. We soon learn that his neighbours are not quite what they seem but the real truths are more horrifying than he can ever realise. It is at this point that the film takes you on a wild ride, a journey ...
grandchamp 12.10.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Arlington Road (DVD)
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Advantages: great ending Disadvantages: too many coincidences
basic Outline
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A recently bereaved college professor begins to suspect that one of his neighbours is a terrorist. He catches him out with a few innocent lies but since he teaches American history and his wife was in the FBI he knows where to look, what questions to ask & who to ask them of.
Plot
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Faraday (Bridges) has been plodding through his life since his wife died, he keeps himself pretty much to himself until one day he comes across an injured boy walking down the middle of his road. He helps him to the hospital where he discovers that the boys parents live over the road from him.
He starts to hang out with the family after this but catching the father, Lang (Robbins) in a few innocent lies he starts to dig into his past. Lang claims to be a structural engineer for a new shopping centre but ...
Advantages: A sterling cast and a superb story Disadvantages: Some of the supporting cast are underused
Michael Farraday is a recently bereaved widower who is raising his son with only the help of new girlfriend Brooke. Hee finds himself at logerheads with his son as the boy refuses to accept the new relationship and struggles with the death of his mother. One day Michael discovers his new neighbours son drifting along the road nearly bleeding to death after a firework accident. As he saves the boys life, he is befriended by the boys parents, Oliver and Cheryl Lang. Soon though, Michael starts to suspect that Oliver isn't all that he says he is, as he has blueprints for office buildings which make a lie of Oliver's claims that he designs shopping malls. As Michael relates his findings about Oliver to a class he teaches, he becomes more and more convinced that his neighbour is part of some terrorist organisation. And as revelations ...
Advantages: Quite different from your normal horror/sci-fi Disadvantages: A little long winded
ArlingtonRoad was well thought out and kept me enraptured throughout (even if I had to buy it on DVD later as I'd fallen asleep at the cinema). However, I found that compared, the Mothmen Prophecies didn't really live up to this director, Mark Pellington.
Set mainly in a small town in West Virginia where strange happening are becoming the norm, John Klein finds himself amidst an unusual and slightly scary phenomenon.
When his wife Mary (Debra Messing aka Grace from Will & Grace) died in a rather diturbing car crash two years previous, she had tried to describe a strange being to her husband but had been far too distressed to explain in full. After her rather emotional death, Klein is lead to his late wifes sketches of a strange angel/moth-like creature. He simply put this down to her condition at her time of death.
Now ...
Michael and his son Grant are still grieving for the loss of Grant's mother, but slowly they begin to make new friends especially with the neighbours. But as their relationship deepens Michael begins to suspect that all is not well. An investigation into the real identity of his neighbours brings on a new nightmare....
"...Builds to a beautifully plotted -- if totally preposterous -- parlor trick of an ending....Cusack scares the bejesus out of Hope Davis [and viewers]..." -- Rating: B+ (Entertainment Weekly, p.118, 29/10/1999)
"...A stylish throwback to the paranoid thrillers of the 1970's..." (New York Times, p.E1, 09/07/1999)
"...The movie generates real excitement..." (Rolling Stone, p.80, 05/08/1999)
DVD Description
George Washington University professor Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) teaches a course in terrorism, but after his wife, an FBI agent, is killed under questionable circumstances, he becomes obsessed with the topic. An all-American family moves in across the street, but Faraday soon suspects that they might be terrorists themselves. Bridges's portrayal of the man fighting against a virtually unseen enemy, with no one believing him, is reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.
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