It's been a long road getting this political thriller to the big screen. The film has been bumped from one release date to the next and after finally viewing it, I can see why--it's one tough film to market. The coming attraction suggests that the film is as explosive commercial action movie (i.e. Jeff Bridges in Blown Away), but it isnÕt that at all. In fact, Arlington Road is a character study about the effects of paranoia and for the most part, it was quite restrained and very unpredictable.

Jeff Bridges is Michael, a teacher of American Terrorism who finds himself put to the test when he discovers that his neighbor Oliver (played by Tim Robbins) might be involved in terrorist activity.

Director Mark Pellington (Going All The Way, Pearl Jam's Jeremy video) isn't interested in hardware, he's more interested in characters. He tells the story through Michael's perspective and has a flair for putting the audience in the character's shoes. Many of the film's scenes have a frantic nightmarish quality that heighten the intensity of the film.

Robbins is quite creepy, as is Joan Cusack as his wife, but the story isn't really about him, making it more difficult to see what makes him tick. The driving force is Bridges. He's an absolutely mesmerizing screen presence and brings a genuine vulnerability to a paranoid man who wants a normal life for his family.

Arlington Road works better than commercial films like Blown Away because it concentrates on characters instead of huge explosions. It's an interesting, yet disturbing film that shows us that paranoia is the real enemy.