DVD Review: Reservation Road

DVD Reviews

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 10, 2008, 11:20 GMT

A hit and run accident destroys not only the life of the victim but eats away at the young boy’s father and the man who was driving the vehicle.

Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) has his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) at the big game. It goes into overtime, but he’s getting calls from his ex-wife Ruth (Mia Sorvino) that his visitation time is up. Dwight leaves the game in a hurry to try and get Lucas back home quickly so that his wife doesn’t challenge his visitation rights again.

Meanwhile the Learner family, Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix), Grace (Jennifer Connelly), Emma (Elle Fanning), and Josh (Sean Curley), is heading home after a recital that Josh has performed in. The kids had collected some fireflies in a jar and Grace says that they need to let them go when they get home so that they won’t suffocate. Emma says that she needs to go to the bathroom, so the family pulls off at a service station. Josh sneaks out of the car as the girls go into the station and goes to the roadside to let the fireflies loose. Dwight comes barreling around the corner, nearly hits a car, overcorrects, and slams into Josh who is on the roadside. Instead of stopping to see if the boy is okay Dwight speeds away into the night since the collision woke up Lucas and he doesn’t want him to see what he did. The Learner family is devastated by the loss of their son, but when the police investigation turns up no leads they go to get a lawyer and Dwight happens to work at the firm. Both men are devastated in their own ways by the events on Reservation Road and they’ll collide. Reservation Road is a film about tragic loss and redemption. We get to see the destructive effects these tragic events have on both families. Dwight is torn between turning himself in and trying to take care of his son. Ethan is obsessed with finding his son’s killer and puts it above all else – which puts his marriage and his relationship with his daughter in jeopardy. Grace is trying cope with the loss of her son and then finding that her husband has become a stranger. Both the loss of a child and the knowledge that you caused such a loss is devastating. Being on either side of that fence is not something that I’d wish on anyone.

Reservation Road deals with such difficult and delicate issues and those who would get caught up in the emotions of such events may well want to hold off on renting this one. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo play their parts well - Ruffalo especially. Both men are exceptional in their roles. The rest of the cast is also excellent, but it’s the men that take up most of the story. Reservation Road is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include 7 minutes of deleted scenes, the 14 minute “Looking Back on Reservation Road” making of featurette, and an episode of Friday Night Lights called “Last Days of Summer (44 minutes).” The inclusion of the Friday Night Lights episode must be to promote that show, but it seems odd this drama. Reservation Road is not one that I’d want anyone to have to travel on. The performances are powerful and worth the look, but the subject matter is not for the faint of heart. Reservation Road is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.

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