Film

Arlington Road (1998)

Director: Mark Pellington

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Recovering from the death of his FBI agent wife, killed in a bungled raid on a backwoods armoury, Michael Farraday (Bridges) grows suspicious of the new family across the way, since he discovered their son stumbling bloodied down the road. Though the parents - engineer Oliver (Robbins) and his wife Cheryl (Cusack) - react gratefully and graciously, and though their boy Brady (Gamble) becomes friends with his own son Grant (Clark), Michael senses that there's something hidden behind Oliver's small lies and evasions. The film sets itself up as an exploration of an America newly at war with itself, its riff on the Oklahoma bombing substantiated by Michael's lectures on anti-government extremism (a ponderous device) and one dinner table discussion. As ever with Hollywood, though, the political is personal; once sides are settled, the film concentrates on ratcheting up the cat-and-mouse tension quite effectively.

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