2.5 Stars

Directed by
Terry George

The nature of prejudice is explored in this film, but not in the way one would expect, it's not racism or sexism or religious bigotry or anything like that, it's kind of a class thing, and it's not exactly explicit, but it's there none the less. It has to do with culture. High class people look down on low class people, and this is considered a good thing by writer, John Burnham Schwartz, who adapted his own novel for the screen.

We actually can notice is in the prologue, when everyone is whole. Ethan(Joaquin Phoenix) and Grace Learner (Jennifer Connelly) and their daughter Emma (Elle Fanning) are at a conservatory where son Josh (Sean Curley) is playing the cello as part of it's orchestra. Curly has an angelic face, and it's obvious he's too perfect to live. Meanwhile, schubby Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson) are watching the Red Sox play baseball.

Guess who runs over whom on Reservation Road? That's right! Clearly, someone who likes baseball is a lower form of life than someone who's into classical music. George and Schwartz make it even clearer when it turns out that Dwight is divorced and his ex [Lucas' mother] Ruth (Mira Sorvino) is a piano teacher married to a tweedy liberal guy named Norris (Gary Kohn). This is blue state chauvinism, no doubt about it.

When it appears that the search for the hit and run driver is hitting a brick wall, Ethan hires some lawyers to keep the hear on the cops, he doesn't know that Dwight is the guy the firm assigns. We could see that coming a mile away. Same thing with Ruth being Emma's piano teacher. The low-class cops are incompetent, the low class lawyer is guilty, and our high-class hero is left to deal with his grief and the case alone, his wife and daughter having moved on.

The ending, sadly, wimps out. Clearly, the viewer wants it to turn violent, but Schwartz is too high class for that. The acting is actually rather good, with Ruffalo giving a far better performance than Phoenix in what turns out to be a more complex role than one might expect in an otherwise simpleminded thriller. The film is above the likes of us, so we might as well go to something entertaining.
 

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