Review of Reservation Road (2007) by Chads. — 09 Apr 2008

There's a small minority out there who felt that Todd Field's award-winning "In the Bedroom" went off the rails in the final act when the father of the dead goes after his son's attacker.

Some believe, me included, that the mild-mannered father's pro-active approach towards justice was antithetical to his character, therefore, the ensuing premeditated violence seemed to have come out of the blue.

In "Reservation Road", an irate father doesn't take the high road either, but you can see the payback from a mile away, and it might(or might not) be a bitch. "Reservation Road" is not a flawed film.

It's a film with flaws, but not fatally so. The performances bear the weight of the many plot contrivances. In particular, Jennifer Connelly, who obliterates her sexpot past in a crying scene motivated by that most heartbreaking of epiphanies-I'm responsible for my child's death.

She's not, and as the story progresses, Grace(Connelly) seems to have arrived at that conclusion. But here's the problem. While "Reservation Road" is busy showing us how Ethan(Joaquin Phoenix) reaches a mindset by which Dwight's days are suddenly numbered, the film neglects to detail Grace's inroads to the halfway house of her own making.

Grace still mourns her son, but at some undocumented juncture, she stopped blaming herself. Connelly is so good here, you'll wish that "Reservation Road" didn't veer away from her road to recovery.

The film takes leave of that bumpy thoroughfare and runs smack dab into another artery, Ethan's artery. When the boy dies, Emma(Elle Fanning) is consoled by her father. She's her father's daughter.

Sean(Josh Learner) was his mother's son. Her pain, not his, should always be the focal point of "Reservation Road".