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Reservation Road Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: R (for language and some disturbing images) Genre: Drama Theater release: October 19, 2007 by Focus Features Directed by: Terry George Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes Cast: Joaquin Phoenix (Ethan Learner), Jennifer Connelly (Grace Learner), Mark Ruffalo (Dwight Arno), Mira Sorvino (Ruth Wheldon), Eddie Alderson (Lucas Arno), Elle Fanning (Emma Learner) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

This has been the year of the revenge picture. First came the abominable Death Sentence, then the extremely problematic yet far superior The Brave One. Now comes Reservation Road, a film that doesn't look or feel like those aforementioned thrillers, but deals with the same basic themes, namely tragic loss, grief, rage and the quest for revenge. Too bad it offers nothing more perceptive or discerning than its blood-soaked predecessors.

Reservation Road opens with every parent's worst fear—the loss of a child. On their way home from an outdoor student concert late in the evening, the Learner family (father Ethan played by Joaquin Phoenix and mother Grace played by Jennifer Connelly) stops at a gas station so daughter Emma (Elle Fanning) can use the facilities. While waiting for his sister, young Josh Learner (Sean Curley) crosses the rural Connecticut road to release some fireflies from a bell jar and is struck and killed by a passing SUV.

The man behind the wheel is Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), who's racing back from Fenway Park where he and his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) have just watched the Boston Red Sox secure a spot at the 2004 World Series. He's going a lot faster than he should because his impatient ex-wife, Ruth (Mira Sorvino) is anxious for her son's return. Unable to make out what he's hit, Dwight hesitates for a moment, but, in a panic, he barrels on before his groggy son can make out what happened.

Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly as grieving parents who've lost a child

Devastated, the Learners try to come to terms with their loss. Grace blames herself for the death of her son, but must surmount her self-loathing in order to be strong for the rest of her family. Her increasingly estranged husband becomes fixated on the incident and obsessed with achieving justice by any means necessary. Ethan is more interested in retribution than in grieving. While the police search for the SUV turns cold, Ethan scours the Internet for advice on how to conduct his own investigation. While Grace tries to figure out how to live, the increasingly frustrated Ethan contemplates how one might kill.

From this point on, Reservation Road relies on contrived coincidences to energize the plot. When Ethan shows up at a local law firm to hire an attorney to help with his case, he is assigned none other than Dwight himself. Unsuspecting at first, Ethan grows ever more wary the more time he spends with Dwight. For his part, Dwight is an emotional basket case. Far from shrugging off what he has done, Dwight becomes Lady Macbeth, a man unraveling under the strain of his heinous act. Getting away, the film suggests, is not the same as being free. Dwight wants, even tries, to confess, but always wavers at the thought of what such an admission would mean to his uneven relationship with his own son.

Reservation Road is the story of these two fathers—one waylaid by seething fury and the other impotent with remorse. Ultimately, we know that Ethan must figure out that Dwight is his man, a realization that is bound to unleash a potentially devastating confrontation.

Mark Ruffalo and Eddie Alderson as father and son

Reservation Road is directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda). George's direction is solid and even interesting, with several scenes where the camera gets right in the actors' faces, disconcertingly close. We are able to chart the cavalcade of emotions just by watching their eyes. And the quintessential New England landscape, resplendent in all its fall glory, is shot with a tourist enticing glow. But what George cannot wring from this turnip is the tension and tautness necessary to agitate his audience, let alone make them care about Ethan's obsession. If we cannot be persuaded to follow the emotional journey of a grief-stricken man who wants to see his child's killer punished, than something is dreadfully wrong.

What is perhaps most disappointing is that Reservation Road boasts some of the best performances seen this year. Ruffalo, always masterful, is a shattered man ready to fall to pieces at any moment beneath the weight of his guilt. Phoenix is hollowed out by his sorrow—it is as if his driving need for vengeance is the only thing that gives his corpse-like presence the energy for locomotion. But it is Connelly who hits like a freight train. Her manifestations of anguish are Oscar-caliber. Since the hit-and-run accident takes place within the film's opening moments, we are asked to mourn for and with the principles long before there is time for us to come to know and care for them. And yet, we do so easily because Connelly and the others' performances are so authentic and believable. These actors are far too good for this material.

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