Camino a la rendención

I didn't know what "Reservation Road" was about when I started watching it. Not knowing the plot makes the movie hit you more. After an unfortunate event, the two families involved (neither of whom knows who the other is) inadvertently become more and more intertwined. Each time that another link gets revealed, you know that you're getting closer and closer to something ugly.

The characters, although not the best that I've seen in movies, were certainly worthwhile. Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix) remains totally despondent about his son's death and the fact that the killer hasn't been caught. Ethan's wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly) wants to move on with her life and finds it regrettable that Ethan obsesses on one topic. Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), who caused the accident, spends most of the movie bothered by his actions and wanting to right the wrongs, but worried about what might result. At times, each of the characters come across as somewhat repulsive, but you still understand why they behave as they do.

Some people might liken this movie to "In the Bedroom" and "Mystic River". "Reservation Road" certainly deals with similar themes, although I wouldn't actually put it in the same league as those other two. This movie seems a little bit more sensationalistic, and as though it's trying to do the same as the other two. But overall, I thought that it's a good movie, and I would recommend it. Also starring Mira Sorvino and Elle Fanning.

I didn't know much about RR when I grabbed it off the shelf at my local video store, but I was enticed by the cast so I decided to take it for a spin. It really ended up surprising me because I hadn't heard anything about it and wasn't really expecting too much out of it. In the end though, I ended up liking the movie a lot. There were parts where I was very very moved and it was just too hard to not be on the side of Joaquin, and then moments later you flash to Mark Ruffalo and I understood in a way what he was going through. Throughout the movie my feelings for Ruffalo changed greatly. At first, of course, it was immediate hatred for him, but as I got to know him I started to feel for him before again being completely sickened by him in the end. Most movies can't take you on a ride the way that I was taken for this one, I was really moved at parts and completely sickened at others. These days you don't get many movies that take you on this kind of a journey, and I salute any film that doesn't just stick with a simple cookie cutter plot that I can predict before it starts. Sometimes we need something like this to remind us what good movies really are. For me the acting was superb and the plot kept you thinking. This is definitely one that I think you should go out and watch.

Begins as a sensitive and involving drama guilt but ends up degenerating into a corny story; the cast is good enough but the story gets more and more clichéd. It starts telling the difficulty in coping with a terribly tragic event and describing the fragility of all the characters, that is really felt. The actors bring an intensity to the characters that is really deep. Phoenix and Ruffalo, as well as Connelly, offer a strong emotional foundation that makes them real and genuinely painful. The thing is that coincidences and links between the events are in the end too many and everything risks of falling to pieces, a real pity because the plot was initially very promising.

The issues dealt with in this movie are real, and I can see many people who will be able to draw from their own experiences when watching this film. You may wonder sometimes if an accident happens, how long can you hold a person accountable for? Jennifer Connelly is again a mesmerizing presence on the silver screen. I watched tonight's screening of Reservation Road in Sudbury at our Cinefest festival expecting it to tug an emotional chord. I have to say, it was touching to see all the parents in the audience shedding a tear when the credits rolled. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo made a somewhat formulaic script feel fresh and real.

A full six months after Reservation Road was supposed to release in theaters (it did, only in a very quiet handful), the film is finally, and again, very quietly put out on DVD. I had been looking forward to this film for some time and had been shocked by it's ill-treatment from Focus Features. After receiving it from Netflix and viewing it, I went out the very next day to purchase it. Where I was expecting a slow, wrenching exploration of grief and loss, this film actually surprised me with an untold amount of suspense and thrills. It certainly is not a "thriller" perhaps, but where the story goes and how these characters react leaves you on edge in several instances where you're not only unsure of what they will do next, but you're not sure what you would do next.

I had read a lot about this movie before seeing it, so there were some reveals that I already knew about from my own curiosity as well as some misguided choices in what is shown in the trailer. I would have liked to see it fresh, so I will give plot points sparingly. Ethan and Grace Lerner (Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly, respectively) are a well-to-do couple living in an affluent Connecticut town who lose a child in a hit and run accident. Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) is speeding home to deliver his young son to his ex-wife (Mira Sorvino) and leaves the scene. The unfolding story effectively explores how the Lerner family struggles to cope with an unimaginable loss to an unknown perpetrator, and how Dwight wrestles with his fragile conscience while trying to hide his crime from the authorities. I think it works better to not know how Ethan and Dwight meet and proceed to dance around this event, but when they do, is when the real enjoyment of this film begins.

Sorvino does a fine job, and Connelly, in a larger and more difficult role, does a very good job, but this film belongs to the male leads. Ruffalo is great playing a seemingly decent man who commits a heinous crime he desperately tries to hide. This is Ruffalo's best work to date and if this film had been appropriately marketed and acknowledged, it would have been a breakout for him.

As our main lead, Phoenix is just wonderful. Ethan is a devoted husband and father whose world suddenly ceases to make sense following this tragedy and seeing him pull away from his family as he gets lost in his depths of grief and fanatical in his quest to find the killer gives Phoenix room to further display his remarkable range. An actor who is blessed with naturalness and unbridled by affectations and shortcut tendencies, his portrayal of a man eaten away by unspeakable sorrow and incalculable rage is harrowing. There is a confrontation scene late in the film when Ethan is so incensed he's physically shaking, his words come out as a jumbled growl, and it's startling to witness. Seeing Phoenix actually show that level of anger makes you wonder how or what he did to get to this place. That I can't know, but I do know that it's terrifying to see this man come undone from the inside out.

Reservation Road is sad, but it doesn't wallow in a way that feels exploitive or cheap. It's a dual journey into one man's struggle to deal with a tragedy that feels beyond him, and the cowardice and humanity of a hunted man dogged by his own shaken ethics. This is a provocative, moving story that really deserves to be seen.