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Reservation Road

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Reservation Road (2007)

September. 13,2007
|
6.6
|
R
| Drama Thriller Crime
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Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.

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Jeanskynebu
2007/09/13

the audience applauded

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Exoticalot
2007/09/14

People are voting emotionally.

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Hadrina
2007/09/15

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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Deanna
2007/09/16

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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Sherazade
2007/09/17

Ethan and Grace Learner (played superbly by Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly) are returning home with their two children Josh and Emma (played by Sean Curley and Elle Fanning) when they make an unscheduled stop at a gas station, while Ethan goes in search of wiper fluid, Grace takes Emma to the restroom while unbeknownst to both parents, Josh wanders off on his own to go and set free some fire flies he had captured for his sister but his mother said they couldn't keep. Meanwhile Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) are racing home to beat the boy's curfew for which his mother (Mira Sorvino) had been calling all day to remind them of. Dwight is divorced from Lucas' mother and though he's a lawyer, she controls visitation rights he does not want to forfeit. In a split second, Dwight is blinded by the high beams of a car in the opposite lane when he gets distracted by his ringing phone and he swerves to avoid a collision with the vehicle as his own car had already drifted past the lane divider in this confusion, he hits Josh, killing him instantly and doesn't stop to investigate. The devastating hit-and-run and the impact of Josh's death on his family, especially the psychological toll is takes on Ethan forms the rest of the movie.

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Desertman84
2007/09/18

Reservation Road is a film based on the book of the same title by John Burnham Schwartz.The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo, deals with the aftermath of a tragic car accident.Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino play key supporting roles.It was directed by Terry George.When his son is killed in an unsolved hit-and-run accident, a grieving father spends his waking hours seeking vengeance against the man who perpetrated the deadly crime. It was a warm September evening when college professor Ethan Learner, his wife, Grace, and their daughter, Emma, went to see Emma's ten-year-old brother, Josh, play cello at a recital. As usual, Josh's performance is superb and the rest of his family wells up with pride. Later, a chance stop at a gas station on Reservation Road results in a tragedy that will leave the surviving members of the family forever broken. On that same evening, hours earlier, law associate Dwight Arno takes his 11-year-old son, Lucas, to see a Red Sox game. The loving father cherishes the time spent with his young son, and the pair hope to watch their favorite team pave a road to the World Series. When the game ends, Dwight prepares to drop Lucas off with his mother, Ruth,who also happens to be Dwight's ex-wife. On the way home, Dwight and Lucas stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, the accident happens so fast that Lucas never even realized what his father had done. But this crime wasn't without a witness, because Ethan watched every horrifying second of the tragedy unfold with his own eyes. As the police are called and the investigation ensues, everyone involved responds to the incident in their own ways, and two grief- stricken fathers are faced with making the hardest decisions of their lives.This far from being a good movie due to the contrivances and highly improbable plot turns,but it manages to be moving at times due to the fact that its talented cast.This was characterized mainly as a melodrama saved by excellent performances.Too bad it never tried to maximize its potential to tell a great story.

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Roland E. Zwick
2007/09/19

Based on the novel by John Burnham Schwartz, "Reservation Road" is an extraordinarily compelling and beautifully acted drama that looks at a single tragic event – the hit-and-run death of a ten-year-old boy – from dueling perspectives. One of those perspectives is of course that of the grieving family – the father, Ethan, the mother, Grace, and the little sister, Emma - as they attempt to come to terms with the single most unimaginable trial a family can face. But the movie also looks at how the incident affects the man who ran over the boy, then fled in panic from the scene. Dwight is a divorced lawyer with a young son of his own, and his life in this rural corner of Connecticut is torn asunder every bit as much as it is for the family of the dead boy.As Ethan comes to believe that the culprit will never be caught – and that the loophole-laden legal system will allow him to weasel out of any meaningful punishment even if he is – the emotionally decimated father decides to take matters into his own hands, much to the consternation of his wife, who would prefer he spend his time trying to heal the family and work to make it whole again.Despite the premise, "Reservation Road" is no cheap exploitative revenge-fantasy but rather a profoundly moving and insightful look into the various ways in which human beings cope with tragedy. The parents' reactions to their son's death and to the utterly random, inexplicable cosmic injustice of it all could not be more palpable and real. In the same way, the soul-crushing guilt with which Dwight is grappling – while having to put on a happy face for the world – makes us empathize with him as well, despite the fact that we certainly don't condone his actions on an ethical or intellectual level. The beauty of the Terry George screenplay is that it refuses to judge any of its characters. There are no heroes or villains here, just deeply flawed individuals doing things - out of fear, out of confusion, out of an instinct for self-preservation or an understandable craving for eye-for-an-eye justice - that they would never even dream of doing under ordinary circumstances. But when the Fates suddenly deal one a blow this unforeseen and this devastating - showing us all just how vulnerable we truly are to having our lives forever shattered in the blink of an eye - all bets are off, and it often takes a Herculean act of the will to lead one back to that instinctive moral center that existed before the tragedy. This is what both Ethan and Dwight are ultimately forced to learn from the experience.The plotting is taut (if a bit overly reliant on coincidence at times) and the direction by George sensitive and focused. And Ruffalo and Phoenix deliver performances of such emotional intensity and lacerating truthfulness that I can't believe they weren't officially awarded for their efforts.But watching them and the film they're in is reward enough for the viewer.

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Combat-Carl
2007/09/20

Such an incredible movie Personally it's Joquain Pheonix's best film. The acting is brilliant. Mark Ruffalo plays a brilliant killer who you really feel sorry for. Joquain Pheonix plays a incredible grief stricken dad. Jennifer Connelly plays a traumatic wife and Elle Fanning plays a emotionally torn sister.Reservation Road follows 2 families. The first family consists of a father (Dwight Arno, Mark Ruffalo) and son (Lucas, Eddie Alderson (I Think)) who are only together for a day because Dwight has lost custody of Lucas. They are returning home from a baseball game and are stuck in traffic to Lucas's mum's annoyance. The second family consist of husband (Ethan Learner, Joquain Phoenix), wife (Grace, Jennifer Connelly) son, (Josh, Sean Curley) and daughter (Emma, Elle Fanning) who are returning from a day out. They stop off at a gas station and Josh runs out onto the road (Reservation Road) and is run over and killed by Dwight who continues driving. Cue a brutally sad scene. The Learner family decide to get legal help so they hire a lawyer. The lawyer is Dwight, Josh's killer, and Ethan didn't see Dwight that night so everything is fine for Dwight. Soon after Emma is being taught the piano by Dwight's ex-wife and Ethan picks up Emma and again sees Dwight. After all these encounters surely Ethan will remember right? Watch it as it is fantastic and you may cry.

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