CineBad!!!

Militias are so ‘96! I remember after the Oklahoma City bombing thing everyone was paranoid about militias. It seems like everyone who has ever experienced a bomb threat suddenly was convinced the militias were gathering in the hills, ready to blow up their workplace, shoot their dog, and steal their mail. Militias were even the subject of a couple of New Yorker cartoons! I think militia fever has died down since then. Militias are out. Even Y2K problems are old hat these days. The times they are a-changin’ But did the makers of Arlington Road catch up on these trends? Apparently not.

It all begins when Michael Faraday (Bridges) encounters a bleeding boy stumbling down the street. He rushes the boy to the hospital and ends up meeting the boy’s parents, Cheryl and Oliver Lang (Cusack & Robbins.) It turns out they are neighbors, and everyone becomes good friends. However, when Michael accidentally gets some of Oliver’s mail that had been forwarded from St. Louis, he begins to get suspicious. Oliver had said that he just moved from someplace else. Hmmm. The wheels are turning in Michael’s paranoid head. You see, Michael’s profession is that of a College Professor. He teaches a class on terrorism. Convenient that terrorists should pick *his* house to move next door to… Anyway, I’m spoiling the point.

Michael goes to Oliver’s one day, and sees some blueprints on a table. From seeing about 2 inches by 5 inches of the blueprint for 5 seconds, Michael is able to ascertain that they are not to the mall that Oliver, an engineer, says he is working on. They’re of a building! Can this be connected to the St. Louis IRS building bombing that happened the year before? Could the nice couple Oliver and Cheryl be *gasp* terrorists? No way!

Oh yeah, there are some sub-plots involving Michael’s deceased FBI-agent wife, his new flaky girlfriend, his son’s adjusting to the motherless situation, and stuff like that. All this just sort of gets in the way of the plot. And the real reason you’re seeing this movie: Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack are really awesome as suburban psychos. They come off as being the perfect barbecuing couple, with just a glimmer of insanity shining through every now and then. However, the main point of the film is the plot twist at the end. I saw it coming from a mile away, but a lot of people were shocked from what I read on the Internet. Of course, you can’t believe everything you read… and this movie will try to hit that point home even more.