Too many unhappy coincidences undermine what could have been a solid drama here. Terry George, the director responsible for 2004’s excellent Hotel Rwanda, gets trapped beneath his own happenstance on Reservation Road. In Hollywood it’s never enough to just have a straightforward storyline such as a hit and run accident and its ramifications… instead we have to have overlaying storylines tying the main characters together at every plot point. Why isn’t it enough to see the suffering family (Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, Elle Fanning) try to piece their lives back together in the aftermath of the accident, while we subsequently get the perpetrator’s story (Mark Ruffalo)? Well, regardless, what does transpire in Reservation Road is solid craftsmanship leading to a whole lot of Hollywood hooey. The tale unravels at a fine pace and the acting is solid, but what keeps drawing you out of the story is its insistence on fashioning Hollywood moments that keep its main characters in scenes together without letting everyone in on all the information. After the death of his 10-year-old son, Phoenix leads his own fatherly investigation, while the man responsible (Ruffalo) starts to feel a whole lot of guilt, maybe because all his scenes tend to resemble one another? Plus Jennifer Connelly is almost entirely wasted in the nagging wife role (does anyone write for females nowadays?). The one fascinating stance the film does take is to not completely condemn Ruffalo’s character… but in doing so, and by showing Phoenix’s deteriorating mindset, by the end you’re almost rooting for Ruffalo to get away and is that really the point they’re trying to get across?
No comments:
Post a Comment