It used to be that when considering one's neighbors, all you had to be concerned with was "keeping up with the Joneses." Sure, there would always be the irritating ones, neighbors who threw parties 'till all hours of the night or planted plastic pink flamingos in the front yard.
Hollywood obviously thought such neighborhood inconveniences were the fodder for TV and films, and as such, delivered many a suburban "nightmare." As such, poor Mr. Wilson's thorn in the side was Dennis the Menace. Samantha and Darrin Stephens had to deal with the always nosey Gladys Kravitz, while several neighborhood families saw their property values drop due to living near "The Addams Family" and "The Munsters."
Meanwhile and on the big screen, the "Grumpy Old Men" films portrayed constantly bickering neighbors, 1981's "Neighbors" had Dan Aykroyd terrorizing John Belushi's suburban bliss, and in 1989's "The 'burbs," Tom Hanks wanted to know more about the new and mysterious family on the block.
Yet none of those neighbors amounted to much when compared with what the character played by Jeff Bridges fears are actually terrorists living across the street. That, coupled with the fact that people nowadays don't really know their neighbors like they used to, makes up the intriguing premise of the clever and somewhat unconventional thriller, "Arlington Road."
Taking a decidedly more individualistic and less preachy route than last year's domestic terrorism film, "The Siege," this picture may warrant a moderate amount of suspension of disbelief at times to work. Nonetheless, and for the most part, it's an effective, albeit nontraditional Hollywood thriller.
While the picture stumbles a bit while trying to disguise an Oklahoma City-like tragedy with a fictitious, but highly similar bombing in St. Louis, it's really more concerned with telling a story about spiraling out of control paranoia than full-blown terrorism.
As such, and as in other similarly thematic films, the "fun" of this picture is in watching the protagonist trying to prove what to him has become an increasingly obvious point. Of course, it doesn't help that his loved ones and acquaintances begin to think that perhaps he's "blown a gasket," especially when they continually manage to nullify his evidence with everyday explanations. That only adds to his growing frustration and mounting paranoia, and when he eventually figures out he must be right, the big race against time to reveal and/or stop the alleged villains rounds out the events.
Such recurring "no one believes me" plot devices have worked for years in thrillers such as "The Parallax View" and the more recent "Conspiracy Theory," while Hitchcock effectively used such paranoia/conspiracy in several of his pictures. With the recent increase in domestic terrorism, however, this plot will probably hit a bit closer to home for everyone and may have you subsequently eying your "perfect" neighbors a bit more closely.
While some may complain that Ehren Kruger's screenplay -- which received the Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- requires too many conveniences and make the Langs too perfectly villainous (such as drinking milk while Michael and his girlfriend have wine, when not being so gosh-darn happy and pleasant), those objections are mostly moot for several reasons.
Although the proceedings appear to necessitate some suspension of disbelief, this is one of those films -- like last year's "Wild Things" -- where the overall picture and all of its scheming and succession of unfolding events seem better in hindsight -- after one has grasped, sorted and analyzed everything -- then when they occur during the film. While a few moments may still seem forced and/or unbelievable to some viewers, that's part of the accepted fun of the genre and most do work in the context of the scene and/or when thought about afterwards.
Regarding the Langs -- and despite the un-Hollywood-like turn of events -- this is a traditional movie with heroes and villains. Thus, few moviegoers will be surprised when the presumed villains turn out to be the real thing. In addition, part of the fun is the near campy way in which the Langs are played. With their big loopy grins and unfettered enthusiasm and pleasantry that masks an underlying darkness, they're something of a product of the Stepford wives moving to Pleasantville.
As such, Tim Robbins ("The Shawshank Redemption," "The Players") and Joan Cusack ("In & Out," "Working Girl") are a hoot to watch in their respective roles. Perfectly playing the apparently benign but certainly creepy and inevitably malevolent neighbors, Robbins and Cusack are quite good and fortunately take their characters a step or two beyond this genre's usually menacing, but often flat stereotypes.
Of course, they're only half the equation and for the film to work as best as possible, the audience completely needs to buy into and fully sympathize with the protagonist. That part falls into the lap of the highly underappreciated Jeff Bridges. While he may have garnered three Oscar nominations (for "Starman," "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot" and "The Last Picture Show") during his career, the moviegoing public hasn't turned him into the big star that he deserves to become, although he may actually appreciate that.
Nonetheless, and while I've enjoyed and appreciated most everything Bridges has done in his long career, one can't help but feel that the script somewhat shortchanges his ability to succeed in this role. Bridges certainly pumps as much life into the character as possible and all of the necessary elements are present, such as the anger and grief over his wife's death that left him to raise their son alone, and his preoccupation with terrorists, etc...
Yet the character occasionally comes off feeling more like a proper and carefully constructed screenplay creation that a real-life human being. Although Bridges pours a lot into the performance -- as usual -- he can't completely manage to overcome that script-related shortcoming.
It's not a huge problem, and it certainly doesn't come close to ruining the film in any way, as Kruger and director Mark Pellington ("Going All the Way") make sure they repeatedly ratchet up the tension notch after notch. The effect will keep most viewers on the edge of their seats and the blurring of lines between the hero and the villains adds a welcomed layer of complexity to the plot.
Although the film won't please everyone, its decidedly non Hollywood-like turn of events certainly sets it apart from the standard "thrillers" that often don't live up to the expectations of their descriptive genre. Featuring decent performances and a clever script that's cumulatively better than its individual scenes, "Arlington Road" may not be the happiest film around, but it's certainly one of the more thrilling. As such, we give this film a 7.5 out of 10.