Despite its 37% rating on www.rottentomatoes.com, I found Terry George’s (Hotel Rwanda, The Boxer) to be a thrilling and captivating drama about the loss of family, moral responsibility, and the guilt a human being can become rattled with when committing an unthinkable crime that you become more and more confident that you are going to be able to get away with. While this movie did poorly at the box office (just over $100,000…no, not $100,000,000), it stars three Academy Award nominees, including Jennifer Connelly, who won Best Supporting Actress in 2002 for A Beautiful Mind.

The movie shows the dual lives of two fathers on opposite ends of a truly horrific event. While rushing to get his son Lucas back home from a baseball game one evening, Dwight (Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right, Shutter Island) veers off the road and strikes Josh, the son of Grace (Connelly) and Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix – Gladiator, Walk The Line). Though it was an accident and he hadn’t been drinking, Dwight freaks out and speeds away rather than assisting the family. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him at the time, Josh was killed at the point of impact. As Grace, Ethan, and young daughter Emma (Elle Fanning – Super 8, We Bought a Zoo), Dwight contemplates his next move. He knows he should do the right thing and turn himself in, but he knows he will be put behind bars for a long time for his hit-and-run encounter.

Dwight also works at a law firm and is thus connected to law enforcement. However, he is aware that there are no leads in the case. Ethan was the only witness to the event; all he knew for sure was that the vehicle was a dark SUV. When it appears that the police are giving up on their investigation, Ethan hires a law firm to see if there is any outside help he can get in tracking down his son’s killer. One of the lawyers who is assigned to Ethan’s case is Dwight. Though Ethan has no idea who Dwight is, Dwight knows exactly who Ethan is. As he gets to see the man whose son he killed, Dwight becomes even more rattled with guilt. Dwight imagines what it would be like if the situation was reversed and he was left with a dead son while the killer roams free. At the same time, with each passing day, it is becoming more and more confident that this crime will never be solved.

My first viewing of Reservation Road hooked me. I was drawn in and immersed by the characters and the situation. Much like the Ben Affleck/Samuel L. Jackson movie Changing Lanes, this movie is about doing what is morally right. Is being able to get away with something that wrecks so many lives worth the guilt that will haunt you? I’m sure there are lots of different opinions on this topic. I would not be able to live with myself if I took someone else’s life. Whether it is an accident or not, I don’t see how I could move forward, knowing that someone else will not have that opportunity because of what I did. Ruffalo did an excellent job showing how excruciating it must be to carry this burden. Likewise, Phoenix and Connelly did a great job of a grieving couple trying their best to make it through each day. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the greatest movie to watch a second time around. I knew everything I would be seeing and was so engrossed with my first viewing that my second viewing didn’t offer anything new.

If you like a heavy drama or are curious to see how Ruffalo’s character makes sense of the situation, check it out.

Plot 9/10
Character Development 10/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing  8/10
Cinematography 7/10
Sound 7/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
91%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Shotgun Stories
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• Changing Lanes
• Death Sentence