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Arlington Road (1999)

post #1 of 8
4/11/10 at 8:05pm
Thread Starter 
This is a weird movie to watch post 9/11.

For those who aren't hip and in the know, Arlington Road is a Rear Window inspired movie about a man (Jeff Bridges) who teaches a class on domestic terrorism who suspects that his neighbor (Tim Robbins) is a domestic terrorist. It's a well-acted movie, which is good, because the way Bridges was able to jump to these incredible conclusions about his neighbor based on practically nothing reminded me of Agent Mulder. It'd all seem silly if they didn't have Bridges to sell it.

What makes it such a time capsule is that this is when they still made movies about government distrust, and that the government agents Bridges tries to warn don't believe him. Nowadays Robbins would have been REDACTED* before he had a chance to take Bridges' kid to pee-wee scouts.

*My understanding of this word's definition is entirely based on a tv spot I saw for the film of the same name.
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post #2 of 8
4/11/10 at 9:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
It'd all seem silly if they didn't have Bridges to sell it.
This is very true.

Sometimes it's really silly, and some of the over-the-top moments, crazy coincidences, and music certainly don't help. It's still pretty entertaining though, and Robbins should play bad guys more often. They even made Joan Cusack terrifying.
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post #3 of 8
4/11/10 at 9:16pm
I'm a big fan of this movie. It's a nice throwback to pictures like The Parallax View. You're right that some of the film's implausibilities are made more convincing thanks to Bridges, but that's always the key to making a paranoia thriller work - make sure you have a strong lead and the audience will buy it.

It was the other movie from late summer '99 with a dazzling twist ending.

I don't know that they would make a movie quite like it after 9/11. But the conspiracy angle is still valid and potent.
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post #4 of 8
4/11/10 at 9:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
What makes it such a time capsule is that this is when they still made movies about government distrust, and that the government agents Bridges tries to warn don't believe him. Nowadays Robbins would have been REDACTED* before he had a chance to take Bridges' kid to pee-wee scouts.

*My understanding of this word's definition is entirely based on a tv spot I saw for the film of the same name.
Do you mean render? As in extraordinary rendition? Because redact, in the government sense, is usually used in reference to the removal of sensitive information from documents or other media.
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post #5 of 8
4/11/10 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 
You're right, I got Redacted confused with Rendition.
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post #6 of 8
4/11/10 at 9:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nexus-7 View Post
They even made Joan Cusack terrifying.
That trademark cheery smile of her's was so chilling when she was standing behind Hope Davis in that phone booth. Other than that ending, this was the only thing I remember from the movie.
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post #7 of 8
4/12/10 at 12:10pm
It's been awhile since I watched this movie but I remember it being pretty intense in some spots and as you guys have already mentioned, Jeff Bridges really sells the whole thing. I think I have the DVD laying around here somewhere so I might re-watch it one of these days.
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post #8 of 8
4/12/10 at 10:22pm
Arlington Road is one of those movies that grabs you and you enjoy it, but ten minutes later you realize that the entire plot makes absolutely no sense at all.
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