Both gut-wrenching and eerie, “Reservation Road” takes its audience on an emotional roller coaster resulting from a fatal hit-and-run accident involving a 10-year-old boy.
On their return home from their son’s cello recital one night in a small Connecticut town, Ethan Learner (Joaquin Phoenix), Grace Learner (Jennifer Connelly), and their two children, Emma and Josh, stop at a gas station along the darkened Reservation Road. Dwight Arno, played by Mark Ruffalo is rushing his 11-year-old son, Lucas, home to his ex-wife after a Red Sox game. As Dwight speeds down Reservation Road, he loses control of the car and strikes the 10-year-old Josh, who was standing outside the gas station. Pausing only for a moment, Dwight panics and speeds into the distance, leaving the dead boy and his distraught family behind in the distance.
Opening with the fateful accident, the rest of the film reveals how both the family and the unlikely killer deal with this life-changing event, separately yet unknowingly, side by side.
Though he initially seems to be a level-headed college professor, the accident, and more specifically the anonymity of its perpetrator, drives Ethan to seek legal counsel through none other than the unsuspected killer, Dwight. Presented face-to-face with the pain and suffering his actions have caused, Dwight cannot escape his guilty conscience. As the mystery begins to unfold and Ethan becomes more and more obsessed with revenge, the tension between the two men transforms this film from a just another tragic tale to a psychological thriller.
The film, combining a cast of award-winning actors with a deeply trying story, succeeds in grasping its audience in this emotionally exhausting experience. Particularly notable is Phoenix’s portrayal of Ethan Learner’s descent from sanity to near madness.
Connelly also puts in a strong performance as Grace. She perfectly embodies the role of the deeply pained mother who undergoes her own struggle with depression and guilt, while also trying to both raise her daughter and hold onto her increasingly distanced and distressed husband.
Darkened lighting and suspenseful music give this film a horrific and gloomy feel, constantly putting the audience on edge, with white knuckles clenched and Kleenex in hand.
“Reservation Road” intertwines tragedy and suspense, blurring the lines of good versus evil. This film is a real test of moral and emotional strength, not only for the characters in it, but its audience as well.
““ Heather Norton
E-mail Norton at hnorton@media.ucla.edu.