Movie Review for Reservation Road

Summary: 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, he 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 towards his fateful encounter at Reservation Road. The accident happens so fast that Lucas is all but unaware, while Ethan--the only witness--is all too aware, as 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.

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Rebecca Murray of About.com (7/0)
            Reservation Road leads audiences on an hour and forty minute ride to nowhere special.

By Josh Rosenblatt of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            With a cast as good as this one, you’re willing to look past the occasional glaring improbability...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            ...cheap...

By Jules Brenner of Cinema Signals (7/0)
            It makes for moments of suspense and drama, but the over-elaboration produces an exhaustion level...

By James Rocchi of Cinematical (7/0)
            Phoenix and Ruffalo probably signed on to Reservation thinking that parts this good were few and ...

By Nick Schager of Cinematical (7/0)
            In the Bedroom redux, but squishier and stupider.

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Cole Smithey of ColeSmithey.com (7/0)
            . A long overdue showdown between the distraught father and his son's killer set the climax, leav...

By Chris Vognar of Dallas Morning News (7/0)
            For all of the roiling emotion, it feels oddly flat, distant and one-dimensional.

By Emanuel Levy of EmanuelLevy.Com (7/0)
            George's heart is in the right place, but his storytelling skills and narrative logic are not, re...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            ...there's a kind of tough beauty to this deft, satisfying thriller.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Centered around coincidences so extraordinary they pull me out of the film.

By Bruce Feld of Film Journal International (7/0)
            All performances are first-rate, particularly those of Ruffalo and Phoenix.

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat (7/0)
            [T]o quote many other fathers, including my own, I'm not mad at Reservation Road, I'm just disapp...

By Chris Cabin of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            ...the film looks and sounds tragic but hardly has the chops to feel tragic.

By Pam Grady of FilmStew.com (7/0)
            Falls curiously flat, partially because that thriller aspect feels false.

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            The film gets caught somewhere between domestic weep-athon and revenge melodrama.

By Stax of IGN Movies (7/0)
            A thoughtful and often compelling drama about grief, anger and revenge...

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (7/0)
            Reservation Road is built as a thriller, but a thriller of the emotions.

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Beth Accomando of KPBS.org (7/0)
            But the family's suffering in Reservation Road is nothing compared to what the audience is put th...

By Bob Strauss of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            Reservation Road may be a downer story with elements that we've seen many times before. But actin...

By Rogert Abele of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            The emotional turbulence of a couple's sudden loss gets a shallow examination by an unimaginative...

By David Poland of Movie City News (7/0)
            It just never finds a clear idea to work.

By Kyle Smith of New York Post (7/0)
            ...operates on daytime-TV-level coincidence and the stupidity of its supposedly brainy characters...

By Armond White of New York Press (7/0)
            Reservation Road is in the familiar suburban terror genre but Joaquin Pheonix and Mark Ruffalo gi...

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Undoubtedly a sincere film, but...feels like a movie that's escaped from the Lifetime Network.

By Nathan Rabin of Onion AV Club (7/0)
            It's a relentlessly downbeat, well-acted melodrama that's easy to admire, but intentionally impos...

By Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters (7/0)
            In Reservation Road, a clanking melodrama in which men suffer loss, grief, and guilt.

By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            ...while the film is consistently entertaining, it never quite packs the emotional wallop that on...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            ...there are too many coincidences and the ending is weak.

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            Even the best actors -- and I'd rank Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo among their generation's fi...

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Jonathan Kiefer of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            Rather than just another one-dimensional they-made-me-a-vigilante movie, this is, um, just anothe...

By Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com (7/0)
            Reservation Road is all about the darkness that lurks in the hearts of men, and although it's dar...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            The script is overloaded with plot contrivances and eye-rolling coincidences that wouldn't happen...

By Peter Hartlaub of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...despite some solid acting, the film is lacking in surprises.

By John Hartl of Seattle Times (7/0)
            A hit-and-miss drama.

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            What starts as a sensitive, involving drama about grief and guilt annoyingly degenerates into a t...

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Dana Stevens of Slate (7/0)
            ...You resent the manipulative mechanics of the story.

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (7/0)
            The film demands to be taken as a prestigious Oscar hopeful, but the material just doesn't have t...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (7/0)
            If you're a fan of strong acting performances, you really should grab the Kleenex and take the tr...

By Claudia Puig of USA Today (7/0)
            ...gets too caught up in plot contrivances and coincidences to be believable.

By Todd McCarthy of Variety (7/0)
            A dramatic situation that should be wrenching is mostly tedious in Reservation Road.

By Willie Waffle of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
            Mark Ruffalo is an awesome weasel.

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Mary F. Pols of Contra Costa Times (3/4) No reference
            The film's biggest emotional wallop comes in the first few minutes, always a bad sign.

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (3/4) No reference
            It's hopelessly and ridiculously contrived. There are things here that make some of the plotting ...

By Connie Ogle of Miami Herald (3/4) No reference
            Despite its contrivances, Reservation Road is moving at times, and that's largely due to the skil...

By Stephen Whitty of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            Director Terry George tells this painful and complicated story well.

By Mike Russell of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            ...About as silly as a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.

By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (3/4) No reference
            There are some really nice quiet moments, but George generally opts for the screaming and the unc...

                         Reviews of Reservation Road
By Mark Dujsik of UR Chicago Magazine (3/4) No reference
            Never cloys about the grief process.

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (3/4) Not Reachable
            Though the story comes across as merely heightened TV fare, stellar acting by Joaquin Phoenix and...

Movie Distributors
Focus Features

Production Companies
Nick Wechsler Productions
Miracle Pictures
Random House Films

Movie Studios
Focus Features