Reservation Road

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Reservation Road" (Focus/Random House) is a riveting drama about the efforts of Ethan Lerner (Joaquin Phoenix), an increasingly obsessive college professor, to identify the driver who killed his 10-year-old son, Josh (Sean Curley), in a hit-and-run accident.

After Josh's cello recital at school, Ethan had stopped at a gas station on the titular road with his wife, Grace (Jennifer Connelly), and daughter Emma (Elle Fanning). The boy had left the car to free some fireflies he had captured in a jar, when he was struck by a speeding car.

Ironically, the driver of the car, Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo), was rushing to bring his own son, Lucas (Eddie Alderson), home after a baseball game. The boy's mother, Ruth (Mira Sorvino), worried that Lucas was out past the time of their custody arrangement, and had called Dwight repeatedly. (The boy was asleep, and though slightly injured during the incident, was unaware of what his father had actually hit.)

While Ethan and Grace grapple with their grief, Ethan comes to feel the police aren't acting fast enough, and a little Internet research convinces him that not only are perpetrators often not caught, but punishment is far from severe when they are.

So he decides to investigate on his own, and goes to the local law firm where, it transpires, Dwight is a law associate, and (you guessed it) is promptly assigned to the case. By further coincidence, Ruth is Emma's music teacher at school.

Dwight, a decent man who, in his panic, had made the wrong decision, is wracked with guilt not only about the incident but mistakes in his past that led to the breakup with Ruth. He seems to want to turn himself in, but worries about the effects on his own son.

Director and co-writer Terry George's film -- from co-writer John Burnham Schwartz's 1998 novel -- has considerably more moral complexity than your standard revenge melodrama, and beautifully delineates the stages of grief. Without giving too much of a spoiler, Ethan does eventually intuit the identity of his son's killer, but what happens avoids the cliches of "The Brave One" and other "Death Wish"-inspired films.

A bearded Phoenix, so superb in this season's "We Own the Night," gives a completely different but equally indelible portrait of a father morphing from grief to obsession to vengeance, and Ruffalo makes his self-loathing characterization painfully touching. Though Connelly, Sorvino and the children are all excellent, it's the pleasure of watching these two great actors at the top of their game that makes the movie so satisfying.

Despite the tragic events that anchor this story, the film's not a downer, but a suspenseful thriller with an underlying but unmistakable injunction against surrendering to vengeance.

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The film contains a violent though nongraphic car accident; some profanity, rough language and crude expressions; and domestic discord. It is acceptable for older teens. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops