ARLINGTON ROAD / (1999) ***1/2

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis, Mason Gamble, and Robert Gossett. Directed by Mark Pellington. Running Time: 117 minutes. Rated R (for strong intense violence and some language). Released by Screen Gems.

"Arlington Road" is this year’s "Breakdown." It's filled to the max with hard core, high octane tension and suspense—so much that it is almost hard to catch your breath during the picture. It’s Fueled with top notch performances and a script that is understandable and intelligent, this may be one of the year’s best thrillers.

The film opens showing a young boy, named Brady Lang (Mason Gamble), stumbling down Arlington Road with blood dripping down his body. Jeff Bridges, who plays Michael Faraday, a single professor who teachers a course on terrorism at a local university, observes this terrified and injured child from inside his car as he drives by. After comprehending the nature of this situation, he races out to be of assistance. Michael rushes Brady to a nearby hospital. He saves the kid’s life, and meets his parents.

What an invigorating opening scene. It may be a little over the edge, but it still provides the setup required for such a brutal, savage film this really is. It is not a movie for younger viewers, and I would think twice before seeing it if you're faint of heart or squeamish in anyway. "Arlington Road" takes itself seriously for every second of the way.

Brady Lang belongs to a family a block away from the Faraday’s, consisting of Oliver (Tim Robbins) the dad, Cheryl (Joan Cusack) the almost eccentric wife, and their children. When Michael and his girlfriend, Brooke, meet the Lang’s they are introduced to his son, and are asked over for dinner. Oliver is an architect currently working on a shopping mall somewhere out of town. But wait! When Michael visited the Lang’s he saw the blueprint for his "so called" mall, and knows that this is no mall he his constructing.

This makes Michael very dissatisfied of his neighbors, especially when he beholds Oliver’s mail and discovers that there may have been a name change. .He brings these concerns to the attention of Brooke, only be called paranoid and be told that his occupation is getting to his head. That is also what his old buddy, FBI Agent Whit Carver (Robert Gossett), says when Michael asks him to do a background check on Oliver.

Things really heat up when Michael finds out the truth behind his friendly neighbor’s identity. Movie posters and newspaper ads suggest it. Previews and reviews reveal it; by the time the film takes an unexpected turn in the third act, the only one suspecting Oliver Lang to be just an ordinary person is Michael.

"Arlington Road" is intelligent enough to develop Jeff Bridges’s character with feelings, flashbacks and an emotional past, rather than detailing his past marriage. It is also smart enough not to develop a romantic subplot between Michael and Brooke, beyond interest in each other. It stays on track the whole way through each scene furthers the plot a little at a time, leaving us with a perfectly structured, flawlessly planned thriller.

The performance by Jeff Bridges is so descriptive and Oscar worthy we actually buy into the paranoia plot and end up caring about him so much the movie’s conclusion is painful. It ruins the entire production. The last twenty minutes of this movie aren’t only unbelievable, but the closing scene features a sense of injustice, unfairness, and is unsettling past comprehension. All of this and I still have not revealed the ending, and will not. But I hated it, and think the majority of an audience will join me in saying as the closing credits appear on screen their jaw dropped off their face and hit the floor.

However, I do think the film is unconventional because of the thematic structure it used for its closing. If it would have concluded in a predictable, usual fashioned audiences would complain also. It proves how much we cared about the characters. And at the same time allows us to realize that this film deserved better, somewhere down the road, it deserved to be much better.