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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Reservation Road

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#1 of 1 Posted 10/8/07 10:06 PM

From harveykarten Posts 744 Last Nov-19
To All [Msg # 22685.1 ]

RESERVATION ROAD

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
Focus Features
Grade: B
Directed by:    Terry George
Written By: John Burnham Schwartz, Terry George, from John Burnham Schwartz's novel
Cast:   Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, Elle Fanning, Eddie Alderson,
Sean Curley, Antoni Corone, John Slattery, John Rothman, Gary Kohn
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 10/8/07
Opens: October 19, 2007

A couple that lived in my building suffered the loss of their 12-year-old daughter after the youngster’s long-term illness. I had thought a tragic event like this would bring the couple together, even more so considering how they cared for her, both spending considerable time with her in the hospital back home. Instead their marriage broke up four months later. I’m told that this is not unusual, though it doesn’t make logical sense to me. In any case, people react in different ways to a death in the family, particularly when the unnatural happens–which is that the parents bury the child instead of the other way around. How people respond to the sudden death of a child is the subject of Terry George’s movie, which has a screenplay by John Burnham Schwartz and the director from Mr. Schwartz’s novel.

While “Reservation Road,” named for the locale of the hit-and-run accident, comes across as just heightened TV fare with melodramatic flourishes and lots of crying, shouting and coincidences, the story is suspenseful, one which could easily have members of the audience wondering about what makes many people go to the movies for; namely, What will happen next?

Director George shifts regularly back and forth from the family of the aggrieved to that of the guilt-ridden perpetrator, indicating that what the psychologically injured dad wants most is revenge while the driver, at first, is eager to cover up the crime. Yet, as Hamlet states in Shakespeare’s most famous soliloquy, “Conscience does make cowards of us all.”

When Josh Learner (Sean Curley), the young son of Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) and Grace (Jennifer Connelly), is accidental run down in outside a gas station in Connecticut’s Stamford-Greenwich area, the driver, Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), who is with his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson), slows down momentarily and darts away. This leaves Ethan, his wife, and their remaining child, Emma (Elle Fanning), shocked and bitter, but while Grace soon gives up thought of catching the killer, Ethan is obsessed with hunting him down. The obsession threatens to tear apart their marriage, while Dwight’s marriage to Ruth Wheldon (Mira Sorvino), had already been kaput for a while. By a rare coincidence Ethan, advised by the police that he can hire a lawyer to start a civil suit once the perp got caught, winds up unknowingly employing Dwight.

Director Terry George keeps the pace moving briskly while photographer John Lindley shows a prosperous Connecticut which is, as one of Ethan’s college students indicates, one of the world’s safest and most comfortable places–from terrorists, perhaps, but not from autos. Predictably enough, recriminations fly on both sides of the fence. Grace begs Ethan, “I want to get you back. Tell me what I have to do.” Dwight argues regularly with his ex about visitation rights. Tears are shed, laughs are few. Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix are performers who are good enough to keep us in the audience if not on the edge of our seats, then at least trying to guess the outcome.

Rated R.    102 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Reservation Road

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