#254: Arlington Road

Release Date: July 9th, 1999

Format: Streaming (Tubi) Written by: Ehren Kruger Directed by: Mark Pellington 2 Stars

In terms of theme and story, is there a movie that has been rendered more obsolete over the past two and a half decades than director Mark Pellington’s 1999 film, Arlington Road?

A thriller about a widower who suspects a married couple in his suburban neighborhood are political extremists who plan to carry out a bombing in the greater DC area, the script from Ehren Kruger is practically quaint at this point.

It’s a movie made pre-9/11 about terrorism, where a bomb in a van is a monumental threat. 

It’s a movie about how kids can be the victims of mass violence, filmed before the Columbine shootings and the dozens of mass school shootings that have happened since. 

It’s a movie about the rising anger at the fringes of American society, set before the rise of real life MAGA fascism and pervasive social media and toxic fake news.

In summary, it’s a thematically outmoded movie.      

As far as the production values, it’s okay. Pellington is a bit too conspicuous with his camera and his actors’ performances are a bit too hammy. It’s a movie that could probably benefit from going full melodrama since the plot is so implausible, but that Kruger script keeps wanting us tied to real-life threats.

Threats that don’t seem so threatening as we creep deeper into the 21st century.