I see the problems everyone else has with "Reservation Road," Terry George's follow up to "Hotel Rwanda," but I'm going recommend it, with reservations of course (yes, that pun was intended). Sure it's contrived. I'll give you that. A man accidentally kills another man's son with his car and then takes off. He's a decent person, so why did he take off? Because then there wouldn't be a movie, right? Then the last act fills cliched and the viewer is left to ruminate over how well the ending works.
Where the film succeeds though, is in it's character development and performances. Mark Ruffalo plays the killer and Joaquin Phoenix plays the grieving father. A neat little twist is added when Ruffalo ends up being the attorney assigned to Phoenix's case. The film does a nice job of portraying these characters. Ruffalo tries to make things right with his own soon as he regrets his action and wonders if he'll have the courage to turn himself in. Phoenix can't even move to the stage of coping with his loss until he's found his son's killer. Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino are underused as Phoenix's wife and Ruffalo's ex-wife respectively.
Grade: B-
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