Ottawa Citizen 10/28/07: John Shea
Reservation Road is wrenching
Janice Kennedy, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Sunday, October 28, 2007
Fresh out of the can, Terry George's new film has created buzz -- and gotten mixed reviews. Reservation Road, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly, is a dark story of loss, vengeance and the weight of unbearable sadness. Narratively, Reservation Road also bears the weight of excess coincidence and predictability -- though neither is quite as heavy in the original novel (by New York writer John Burnham Schwartz) as in the movie. Timed with the film release, a short audio version of the novel is newly available from Random House (3 hours abridged/3 CDs, $21). Bolstered by strong dramatic narration from three veteran actors, it is undeniably worth a listen. Stanley Tucci is the vengeance-seeking father who has lost his son to a hit-and-run driver; Anne Twomey is his wife, a woman emotionally eviscerated by the tragedy; and John Shea is the tortured driver who has set the whole terrible play into motion. All three deliver with wrenching and understated power.
© Ottawa Citizen
Return to The Mutant X Warehouse