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Reservation Road
Focus Features


6.0

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 6 votes
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FILM:

Hotel Rwanda

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language and some disturbing images

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly, and Mira Sorvino

Based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name by John Burnham Schwartz, this is a compelling new dramatic thriller. A tale of anger, revenge, and great courage, the film follows two fathers as their families and lives converge. On a warm September evening, college professor Ethan Learner, his wife Grace, and their daughter Emma are attending a recital. Their 10-year-old son Josh is playing cello--beautifully, as usual. His younger sister looks up to him, and his parents are proud of their son. On the way home, they all stop at a gas station on Reservation Road. There, in one terrible instant, Josh is taken from them forever. On a warm September evening, law associate Dwight Arno and his 11-year-old son Lucas are attending a baseball game. Their favorite team, the Red Sox, is playing, and hopefully heading for the World Series. Dwight cherishes his time spent with Lucas. Driving his son back to his ex-wife, Lucas' mother Ruth Wheldon, Dwight heads toward his fateful encounter at Reservation Road. The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, whereas Ethan--the only witness--is all too aware when a panicked Dwight speeds away. The police are called, and an investigation begins. Haunted by the tragedy, both fathers react in unexpected ways, as do Grace and Emma. As a reckoning looms, the two fathers are forced to make the hardest choices of their lives. (Focus Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	John Burnham Schwartz (novel) Terry George John Burnham Schwartz
DIRECTED BY:	Terry George
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 8, 2008 Theatrical: October 19, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

There's a kind of tough beauty to this deft, satisfying thriller.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

It's a relentlessly downbeat, well-acted melodrama that's easy to admire, but intentionally impossible to enjoy.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

A powerful Christian parable, painful but illuminating, about crime and redemption.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

Connelly, in particular, soars as the nail-biting mother trying desperately to put on a brave face and keep her family together, while Ruffalo and Phoenix, two of Hollywood’s best brooders, are excellent as wounded young fathers.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Unrelentingly bleak, the movie is nonetheless a riveting drama with some outstanding performances.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Instead of a tense, emotional and psychological thriller or a thoughtful exploration of grief and guilt, what we end up with is ... soap. Whether you choose to wash your hands of it is up to you.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The book tore at my heart; the movie left me strangely unmoved.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Tries rather feebly to examine complex questions of morality. It does a better job of capturing a sense of shattering grief, but it gets too caught up in plot contrivances and coincidences to be believable.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's hard to watch two fine actors working themselves into a lather for so little reward.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Ruffalo is so squirrelly in the role that he seems like a dead giveaway from the start. You know exactly where the story is going, and, dang, that's exactly where it goes.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The result is that, rather than tragedy, this unfolds like a plodding morality tale in which Wrath and Cowardice play out their respective parts.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The best efforts of the performers cannot authenticate a plot that no longer feels inevitable. It feels contrived. And the audience stays at a remove instead of entering someone else’s nightmare.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Even the best actors -- and I'd rank Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo among their generation's finest -- can't save a movie that aims for tragedy but stalls at soap opera.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

George, director of "Hotel Rwanda," is better at directing actors than visual storytelling. Every time the camera tilted to suggest a character's shaken world or distorted worldview I didn't feel heartache, I felt headache.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The real problem with this movie isn't its trashy side - the "Death Wish" stuff is actually suspenseful. It's the creepy note of causal judgment that hangs over it.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Serious Acting Opportunities abound! Unfortunately, sharp dialogue and characters who keep you riveted do not.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Dour, ponderous picture.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Despite some solid acting, the film is lacking in surprises. For all the suffering that these characters endure, there's very little payoff.

Slate Dana Stevens

The kind of movie that moves you to tears even as you resent the manipulative mechanics of the story.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

There is no reason why Reservation Road could not have been great. George has co-written some powerful films in the past, including two for Daniel Day-Lewis, "In the Name of the Father" and "The Boxer." He is not wrong to want to mainline intensity here, but the inner lives of these men have not been explored, only displayed.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Paints itself into a corner, creating a static situation in which everyone is either stymied or wracked by indecision, leaving the movie free for its two male leads to wallow in self-pity, remorse and bad behavior.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A dramatic situation that should be wrenching is mostly tedious in Reservation Road.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

Reservation Road itself may twist and turn into the New England night, but emotionally and dramatically, the movie that bears its name is a dead end.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Very little in Reservation Road ultimately rings true, which makes the anguished theatrics on display that much more exasperating.

Los Angeles Times Robert Abele

Neither involving as a study in grief nor compelling as a thriller about conscience, the cat-and-mouse tragedy Reservation Road is a misery windup so schematic and obvious it reduces its crisis-stricken characters to little more than emotional bumper cars.

Premiere Eric Alt

One of those infuriating films that can't allow this already dramatic situation to fester and develop on its own.

New York Post Kyle Smith

In the mood for some dead-child entertain ment tonight? Reservation Road has what you're looking for. It's "In the Bedroom" crossed with, um, "Fever Pitch."

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

This is one of those sadistic exercises that puts its characters through the wringer without saying anything true or meaningful.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A deadly earnest and deadly dull psychological thriller.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul W. gave it a0:
2 hours of the most ridiculous melodrama with no end in sight which becomes progressingly worse after half way. A hit and run tale is a sad one but surely this doesn't justify bludgeoning the audience with overwrought drama scene after scene after scene. While there is practically no story progression to speak of and no development in the 2 dimensional characters, the leaden script makes every bit of acting feel completely overdone. Any sympathy for the characters? forget it, they are merely cardboard soap-personae who don't exist in the real world and who soon become highly annoying as such. Cringeworthy at best, this lackluster storytelling-void will be forgotten soon and rightfully so. Do yourself a favor and see something else

Jay H. gave it a6:
Starts out very promising, but there are too many coincidences and the pace slows. Still, I always found it interesting, even though it is improbable. Well acted.

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Reservation Road Focus Features

Reservation Road
Focus Features