Reservation Road

A drama with a lackluster plot and transparent characters.

It’s always a refreshing experience to go to the movies every now and then, sit back for an hour and a half and watch a movie that doesn’t require bloody action sequences and crude, vulgar jokes to catch your attention. Sometimes, dialogue can guide a movie (just look at Pulp Fiction, a movie that is smothered with smart, witty dialogue and is widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made) and other times, a movie can be successful simply based on the raw emotions of each scene. With Reservation Road, director Terry George (who was at the helm for the excellent Hotel Rwanda) is unable to figure out what he wants his movie to be: an emotional drama about the consequences of hit-and-run accidents or a revenge movie. As a result, the movie comes across as rushed, hurrying from one scene to the next without focusing any of its time on the characters.

The movie’s name is taken from a road in Connecticut, where Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his son are driving back from a Boston Red Sox game. Stressed by his ex-wife (Mira Sorvino) calling every ten minutes to check in on them, he begins driving home, going faster and faster until his attention is dragged away from the road.

Meanwhile, family man Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) and his wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly) are on their way back from their son’s band concert. They go onto Reservation Road to stop at a gas station. While Ethan and his wife go inside, their son gets out of the car. He steps a little too close to the edge of the road and, out of nowhere, is struck by Dwight Arno’s swerving car. Ethan screams in horror and runs to his son’s side, but by the time he gets there, it’s too late. Dwight drives off, confused and distraught at what’s just happened.

All of this happens within the first ten minutes of the movie, and the next hour and a half is spent chronicling Ethan’s downward spiral into depression and anger until he’s so hellbent on finding who killed his son that he’s willing to take the law into his own hands, and Dwight’s spiral into depression as the magnitude of what he’s done begins to consume him.

All of this makes for an interesting premise, but director Terry George doesn’t know how to control the story. By the end, everything is so out of control that the movie nearly pulls off a hit and run accident with us, the audience. Fortunately, the acting is good enough to allow George to swerve to the side, nearly avoiding a wreck of the movie. Joaquin Phoenix, who has always been a solid actor (just watch Gladiator), steals the show here, switching from grief to rage in the blink of an eye, and anybody who’s lost a loved one knows the overwhelming burden of pain that accompanies it. Mark Ruffalo also does a great job, but I was surprised by Jennifer Connelly’s underwhelming performance as Ethan’s wife. In a movie that’s devoted mainly to Phoenix and Ruffalo trading barbs, Connelly is sometimes pushed onto the backburner, which is too bad.

At times, the movie tugs violently at our heartstrings, leaving us holding our breaths until our lungs seem ready to collapse. However, there are also moments so drenched in melodrama that it’s hard to figure out whether or not it’s a Hollywood movie or a low budget soap opera you’re watching. It all comes down to pacing, and George, as I’ve said before, doesn’t know how to control all of the elements in his story.

In the hands of a more well-known, seasoned director/screenwriter, the story may have been able to develop into a much more compelling story. However, instead we’re left with a phantom movie; something that we know has the potential to be great but is instead just teasing us. Grade: C