Reservation Road

The perfect Connecticut family of four strolls by the shore on a warm, autumn evening. Sounds like the description of a Brooks Brothers Fall catalog, but it's really the beginning of the unbearably depressing and tragically formulaic Reservation Road.

The atmosphere of tedium begins with scruffy college professor Ethan (Joaquin Phoenix) and beautifully dull wife Grace (Jennifer Connelly) taking the trip home after their son Josh's cello recital. At the same time, divorced single father Dwight (Mark Ruffalo) powers his SUV back to his ex-wife's after spending a precious Sunday at a Red Sox game with his son. Before you can say "predictable," Dwight's Ford Explorer crushes Josh and his atrociously picturesque jar of shimmering fireflies, thus destroying Ethan and Grace's idyllic existence.

Unsatisfied with leaving the tragedy be, Ethan pursues his son's killer with an overpowering thirst for revenge. To help with his investigation, he hires a set of lawyers, one of whom (surprise, surprise) is Dwight. And of course, Dwight's ex-wife is the dead son's former music teacher.

From here on, Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) sends the film down a calculated road rife with predictable tension and grief. George attempts to infuse the same level of tragedy and pain into suburbia as he so effectively did in Rwanda, but the effort is visibly labored.

Soon, Ethan departs from clichéd homely and amiable professor-type to brooding and intensely tortured wreck. Ethan's obsession with finding his son's killer slowly isolates him from his wife and daughter. Dwight, in constant vacillation between turning himself in or living with his crime, assuages his guilt by filming his confession to the crime.

While Connelly sulks and whimpers in her limited role, Phoenix and Ruffalo, blessed with two of the most expressive faces of today's actors, handle their character transformations with incredible nuance. The taxing experience of watching the film is slightly alleviated by its climax, mainly because of these performers' dramatic abilities.

Ultimately, Reservation Road is joyless to watch, not only because of its content, but also because of the wasted talent of Ruffalo and Phoenix.

-Charlie McSpadden