Arlington Road

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Arlington Road belongs to that splendid Hollywood tradition of dealing with serious, timely issues in the form of a suspense thriller.

Film.com Peter Brunette

It plays lots of cool mind games with the audience -- if in an occasionally incoherent way -- and ends up providing a surprising amount of fun.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

While this film's conception of a terrorist threat is apparent early on, its strength lies in a string of ingenious little surprises.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An intelligent, insidiously plotted Hitchcockian thriller directed in souped-up, modern expressionistic style.

LA Weekly John Patterson

Despite its flaws, Arlington Road romps home as an absorbing, unpredictable thriller.

Newsweek Andrea C. Basora

Arlington Road does a nice job of keeping things speculative enough to remain interesting.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Slippery issues about trust, parental responsibility, and the inalienable American right to personal and political freedom are ceded to Hollywood's inalienable right to stage high-pitched chase scenes and a shocking big finish.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Deceptively keen as both a paranoid political thriller and a caveat against the trustworthiness of your friends and neighbors.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Although it takes something of a slog to get there, this thriller finally comes through where it counts.

Film.com John Hartl

Before it finally twists itself into a pretzel in the third act, this paranoid thriller creates a scary mood and allows its leading actors to go all the way with it.

Film.com Tom Keogh

If you don't ponder too much the script's muddled, self-serving influences, Arlington Road succeeds at discomforting a viewer and making one apt to look over one's shoulder for a day or two.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

A movie where style and craft are fatally confused with substance, and where almost no effort is made to make the characters seem like believable people.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

If the bad guys in the real world were all this obvious, life would be a whole lot easier.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

Though a thematically ambitious and deftly acted thriller, the film is also shockingly coldblooded and not a little reactionary.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

What will divide viewers is the plot; either the ending makes no sense or it forces you to rethink everything that went before.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

Amidst the rubble of political rhetoric that underlies Arlington Road, one thing is clear: The enemy is us.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A classy but over-contrived topical thriller about bomb plots and anti-government groups.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

The mode is hysteric-Hitchcockian, the result mostly devoid of suspense.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Although the film starts out with well-mounted menace, Arlington Road becomes increasingly overwrought and predictable.

New Times (L.A.) Hal Hinson

Even before the film has worked up a head of steam, it has started to pile up the improbabilities, giving us reason to question its credibility.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A clumsy and incompetent thriller for nine-tenths of its length, but it has an ending so clever and that goes so wildly against expectations it almost exonerates the film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The screenplay stretches the viewer's credulity far beyond the breaking point, asking us to accept dozens of absurd contrivances and coincidences.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The idiosyncratic instrumentation and melodies in the score by Angelo Badalamenti ("Blue Velvet") and a masterful opening scene are wasted on this pathetic thriller.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A successful thriller makes you forget such impossibilities, but here they poison every scene.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A conspiracy thriller that begins well and makes good points, but it flies off the rails in the last 30 minutes.

Film Threat Ron Wells

This masterpiece started out at around three stars, but after the credits, it just got sillier and more lurid.