''Reservation Road'' is a 2007 American

crime drama film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

Terry George Terence George (born 20 December 1952) is an Irish screenwriter and director. Much of his film work (e.g. '' The Boxer'', '' Some Mother's Son'', and '' In the Name of the Father'') involves "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. He was nominated ...

and based on the book of the same title by John Burnham Schwartz, who, along with George, adapted the novel for the screenplay. The film, starring

Joaquin Phoenix Joaquin Rafael Phoenix ( ; ; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. Widely described as one of the most preeminent actors of his generation and known for Joaquin Phoenix filmography, his roles as dark, unconventional and eccentric charact ...

Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Lynn Connelly (born December 12, 1970) is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film ''Once Upon a Time in America''. After a few more years of modeling, she began t ...

, and

Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor. He began acting in the late 1980s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan's play ''This Is Our Youth'' (1996) and drama film ''You Can Count on Me'' (2000) ...

, deals with the aftermath of a fatal

car crash A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. T ...

. It was released to theaters on October 19, 2007.

Plot

Dwight Arno is an attorney going through a divorce from his wife Ruth. As part of the divorce agreement, Ruth has custody of their son Lucas while Dwight has visitation rights. Dwight takes Lucas to a baseball game. When Dwight and Lucas leave the game, Ruth calls Dwight to remind him that he's late in returning Lucas home. Dwight, worried of losing his visitation rights, drives Lucas home in a rush. Dwight loses control of his vehicle and strikes a young boy, Josh Learner, standing by the roadside. Dwight, panicked, drives away and tells Lucas they collided with a tree log. Josh does not survive the accident. Dwight learns of Josh's death on the news. Overwhelmed with guilt and fear, he frantically attempts to cover up evidence linking him to the hit-and-run. Meanwhile, Josh's mother, Grace, slowly begins to move on from the death of her son, but her husband Ethan is determined to find the perpetrator and bring them to justice. Ethan decides to hire a lawyer, who happens to be Dwight. Dwight is consumed with guilt and contemplates turning himself in to the police. When he goes to the police station, the investigating officer mistakes him for Ethan's lawyer and tells him that the case is going nowhere. Dwight leaves the station without confessing. When he picks up his daughter Emma from her piano lessons with Ruth, Dwight is forced to face his guilt and the reality of his situation. Dwight asks Ruth to take care of Lucas for a week, telling her that it will be the last week for a long time. Ethan confronts Dwight with a gun. Ethan forces Dwight into the trunk of his car and lets him out after a short drive. Dwight grabs the gun, pointing it at Ethan, then himself and begins to cry, saying how he wishes he had died instead of Josh. Ethan leaves Dwight to deal with his remorse. The film ends with Lucas, watching a taped confession of Dwight's hit-and-run.

Cast

as Ethan Learner *

as Dwight Arno *

as Grace Learner *

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born ) is an American actress. She rose to stardom with her performance as a prostitute in the comedy film ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995), which won her both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Academy Award for Best S ...

as Ruth Wheldon *

Elle Fanning Mary Elle Fanning (born April 9, 1998) is an American actress. Her works include both independent films and blockbusters, and her accolades include a National Board of Review Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and ...

as Emma Learner * Eddie Alderson as Lucas Arno *

Sean Curley Sean Curley (born July 14, 1995) is an American actor. He is known as the singing voice of Pablo on the children's TV series ''The Backyardigans''. He also played Josh Learner in '' Reservation Road''. Early life Sean Curley was born in the Un ...

as Josh Learner * Antoni Corone as Sergeant Burke *

John Slattery John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director. He is known for his role as Roger Sterling in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated 4 times for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outsta ...

as Steve Cutter

Production

Filming

The film was shot in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

, starting in late October, 2006, with the very first city scene fro
Annapolis, Maryland
and the next scene at Cove Island Park in Stamford. Parts of the movie were also filmed at

Lake Compounce Lake Compounce is an amusement park located in Bristol and Southington, Connecticut that opened in 1846. It is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the United States. It spans , which includes a beach and a water park called Croco ...

Amusement Park in

Bristol, Connecticut Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. The ...

, and the Olde Blue Bird Inn & Gas Station and adjacent Baseball Field in

Easton, Connecticut Easton is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,605. Easton contains the historic district of Aspetuck and the Plattsville census-designated place. It is a part of the Greater Bri ...

. Shots of

Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isl ...

are used in the trailer and movie.

Release

''Reservation Road'' grossed a total of $36,269 in its first weekend. It ended up making $121,994 in the United States, and ended with a worldwide gross of $1,783,190. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on April 8, 2008.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gives the film an average score of 46 out of 100, based on 29 reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives the film 38% based on reviews from 112 critics, with an average rating of 5.23/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While the performances are fine, ''Reservation Road'' quickly adopts an excessively maudlin tone along with highly improbable plot turns."

References

External links

* * * * {{Terry George 2007 films 2007 crime drama films 2000s English-language films American crime drama films Films about child death Films about grief Films about road accidents and incidents Films based on American novels Films directed by Terry George Films scored by Mark Isham Films set in Connecticut Films shot in Connecticut Films shot in Martha's Vineyard Focus Features films 2000s American films English-language crime drama films