Review

Reservation Road - Hotel Rwanda’s Terry George has never conjured images of subtlety in his films – his best work was as a screenwriter, for Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father – and Road is another Nothing Is Private-ish example of a scribe not being able to handle material as carefully as someone with a bit more experience behind the camera. There are some really nice quiet moments, but George generally opts for the screaming and the uncontrollable sobbing one might think need accompany a film with Oscar aspirations.

Road is about a New England rest stop hit-and-run accident that claims the life of a young boy. His father (Joaquin Phoenix) isn’t as sad so much as he is hell bent on justice, especially when he begins to believe the cops aren’t following through on the investigation. The perp (Mark Ruffalo) is a single dad on the verge of losing visitation of his son, which would probably happen if you were charged with Vehicular Manslaughter (unless you were Nicole Richie, in which case you’d go to jail for an afternoon). Anger, guilt, anger, guilt, anger, guilt, with a hysterical random shot of a black guy in the audience of a school recital that smacks of an assistant telling George that there actually are negroes in Connecticut.

TIFF Review

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