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THE FILM ARLINGTON ROAD

The Week in Review

Fiona Sturges
Saturday 20 March 1999 00:02 GMT
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Jeff Bridges becomes convinced that his neighbours, played by Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack, are right-wing terrorists in Mark Pellington's psychological thriller.

"It's in trying to close the plot's noose that Arlington Road rather loses its way. The psychological intricacy of its early stages gradually gives way to the more straightforward demands of a conspiracy thriller," revealed Anthony Quinn, while The Guardian mumbled: "There's a germ of something gripping here." "Everything in the movie is overstated, plonky and teutonic. Bridges' performance starts out as hammy and gets worse," grumbled the Daily Mail. Time Out found it: "An above-par genre movie which seemed to promise something more." "Arlington Road would be a more effective thriller if it surrendered to its trashy impulses," decided The Express.

Despite gripping opening scenes and a promising plot, Arlington Road becomes increasingly implausible as it gives in to the cat-and-mouse strategies of your average conspiracy potboiler.

Arlington Road is out on general release, certificate 15. 117 minutes

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