Arlington Road had my attention for about the first forty minutes, but then it became ridiculously unbelievable. The notion that dedicated anti-government terrorists would attempt to establish themselves as normal middle class folks in an upscale suburban neighborhood defies everything we know about such radicals in the real world. That they would(as the film implies)go through this elaborate charade in order to recruit the college professor husband of a deceased FBI agent (who was killed investigating another potential domestic terrorist)is ludicrously silly. Jeff Bridges is usually a reliable actor, but here his character is required to engage in such illogical behavior that no actor could make his actions convincing. I actually found his character so annoying that I was hitting the fast forward button with regularity in the films final 40 minutes. Tim Robbins is another fine actor, but here he required to play a character who goes from a master at disguising his true character to a cliched Hollywood notion of a right wing boogeyman, all in the blink of a couple scenes. I could go on, but I will probably never convince those who think this is a good movie that it is really a half-baked piece of tripe, with no relationship to the real world. Also wastes Hope Davis, one of my favorite young actresses, as Bridges' graduate student girlfriend (an all too true cliche), who goes from scoffing Bridges' paranoia to foolishly following the terrorists, again with no character motivation. This is a movie made by people with contempt for their audience. They pretend to deal with an important topic, only to exploit it for cheap action thrills.
Review of Arlington Road
