reservation road Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Specialty distributors scrambled to find enough screens to accommodate their titles as a flock of adult dramas expanded into the hinterlands. When the dust settled, Wristcutters: A Love Story emerged victorious among new releases, averaging $12,800 per screen at three locations, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. When it played at Sundance in 2006, Karina Longworth called it "a bold first effort, with a distinct, swaggering sense of style and humor that's hard – even for a cynical blogger sick to death of indie 'quirk' – to resist."

The much-more heralded Reservation Road, directed by Terry George, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino, came a cropper, averaging just $2,830 per screen at 13 locations. Considering the high-profile talent, that's got to be considered a major disappointment for distributor Focus Features. Nick Schager felt the film "seems determined, whenever possible, to resort to preposterous plot twists at the expense of actually plumbing its grief-stricken characters' anguished psyches."

Earning just a little bit more per screen, but without star wattage and very many advertising dollars behind it, the performance of O Jerusalem, about the birth of the modern state of Israel, can be considered satisfying to distributor IDP. Unfortunately, the reviews so far -- at least as indexed by Metacritic -- are far from enthusiastic, which doesn't bode well for future word of mouth.

Ian Curtis biopic Control added one theater and increased its take to $18,250 per screen, the highest average for the week, while the reissue of Blade Runner: The Final Cut fell 60% yet still made $13,00 at each of its two screens. Lars and the Real Girl added 14 theaters and continued its good performance, taking in $8,809 per screen. The remake of Sleuth added 12 theaters but declined to an average of $1,880.

Among the September holdovers that expanded, The Darjeeling Limited ($6,534 each on 202 screens), Lust, Caution ($4,688 each on 125 screens), Into the Wild ($3,267 each on 658 screens) and Across the Universe ($2,812 each on 960 screens) performed well.

Reservation Road was shot, and takes place, in and around Stamford, Connecticut. I live in Stamford, Connecticut. Joaquin Phoenix plays a bearded husband and father of two. I'm a bearded husband and father of two. Phoenix's college professor Ethan Learner is married to Jennifer Connelly. Were it not for my beloved wife, I would like to be married to Jennifer Connelly. And yet despite such powerful similarities between this on-screen fiction and my own life, there's almost nothing identifiably realistic about Terry George's adaptation of John Burnham Schwartz's novel, which seems determined, whenever possible, to resort to preposterous plot twists at the expense of actually plumbing its grief-stricken characters' anguished psyches. As with his previous Hotel Rwanda, the director tackles a grave dramatic subject - here, a child's death and the ensuing desire for revenge - only to skirt around unpleasant truths, feigning interest in the personal cost of retribution for both victim and victimizer while gorging himself on portentous music and encouraging overcooked histrionics from his cast. The resultant nonsense is In the Bedroom redux, but squishier and stupider.

On the way home from a seaside orchestral concert featuring their cellist son Josh (Sean Curley), Ethan (Phoenix) and Grace (Connelly), along with older daughter Emma (Elle Fanning), stop to fill up the family SUV at a gas station. While everyone else is distracted, Josh follows mom's advice to release some captured fireflies from a jar, a decision that proves fatal when lawyer Dwight Arno (Mark Ruffalo) and his son Lucas (Eddie Alderson), returning home late from a Red Sox game, come speeding around the corner and, thanks to a distracting cell phone call, hit the boy. Dwight, already upset about his ex-wife Ruth's (Mira Sorvino) nagging, panics and drives away, leaving Ethan and Grace to pick up the pieces of a now-shattered life. This cataclysmic narrative catalyst is Reservation Road's finest scene, due largely to Phoenix and Connelly's horrified reactions to the tragedy at hand, which have a dumbstruck numbness that - when matched by their artless husband-wife rapport - captures not only agony but also the way in which people, in times of crisis, subtly attempt to protect fellow loved ones. Their authenticity is bracing, even more so given that George stages the scene with clunky crosscutting that diminishes, rather than heightens, the sudden, shocking impact of the catastrophe.

News hit this morning that a laptop owned by Francis Ford Coppola had been stolen from an office in Buenos Aires, where Coppola's Zoetrope Argentina was set up to do pre-production work on the filmmaker's next project, Tetro. The robbery happened Wednesday night, involved the tying up of Zoetrope employees, one of whom was cut by a knife, and apparently also included the theft of other computer, cameras and valuables. On the specific laptop, though, was a real treasure for cinephiles: the screenplay for Tetro, which we previously learned is about Italian immigrants in Argentina. It wasn't the only copy, of course, but it was a shame. Still, the original story seemed not to be devastating for Coppola, who wasn't in the area, as he isn't expected to begin shooting until next year. As of this morning, it didn't even seem like he was going to issue a statement about the incident.

However, now Coppola has spoken to the press regarding the robbery. It turns out the computers did have some very significant items on them, including personal and family photographs, reportedly all those of his life, as well as all of his writings from the past 15 years. It would seem like an odd place to keep such personal belongings, but considering Tetro is partially autobiographical, it makes sense that the office would have access to items from Coppola's life. Of course, he probably should have only left copies of his life down in Argentina, but it's not fair to criticize his mistake at such a stressful moment. Coppola spoke on a local television station in Buenos Aires, mentioning that he would really, really like it if he could get his backup disk back. He claims it would save him years of work if he could have the lost files returned. He also stated that he would be moving the Zoetrope office out of its Palermo location and into another safer neighborhood. We'll have to wait and see if the incident has disrupted plans for Tetro's filming.

In Reservation Road, Mark Ruffalo plays Dwight --a divorced lawyer drifting through life who accidentally strikes and kills a young boy with his SUV one night -- and drives away, leaving shattered lives in his wake. Ruffalo's performance is careful and yet raw, sincere and complex -- and his work opposite Joaquin Phoenix (who plays the father bereaved by Dwight's accident) has riveting power. Ruffalo spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about tackling tough characters, working opposite Phoenix and his character's love of the Red Sox. You can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



You can download the entire interview right here.

Director and writer Terry George may best be known for his Oscar-nominated work on Hotel Rwanda; Reservation Road, his new film at the Toronto International Film Festival, may very well earn a few Oscar nominations of its own. George spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about working with an impressive group of actors (including Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mia Sorvino), the challenges of adapting John Burnham Schwartz's novel and the difference between simple villains and complex characters; you can download the entire interview right here.

Late one night, a family stops at a gas station as they return from a recital; another man drives his son home from a baseball game. A young boy steps too near the road; a father swerves his SUV to avoid oncoming traffic.

And hits the boy. And keeps going.

Reservation Road, the new film from Hotel Rwanda director Terry George, doesn't deal in the clashing of mighty armies or the conflict between nations; it looks at a smaller slice of the world. At the same time, the themes here -- guilt, sorrow, anger, forgiveness -- are explored with power and passion thanks to two extraordinary lead performances. Joaquin Phoenix plays Ethan, a college professor dealing with the sudden death of his son and how that's affecting his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and daughter (Ellie Fanning). He can't go on. He has to go on. Mark Ruffalo plays Dwight, a lawyer who's just drifting through his life -- his job, his shabby apartment, the ruins of his marriage -- and trying to be a good dad to his son (Eddie Alderson). When Dwight strikes and kills Ethan's son, he keeps going -- a single moment of weakness that comes to devour him. He didn't do anything deliberately. But that's no excuse. It was an accident. But it killed someone.

If you've been a steady reader of this blog for at least four days, then you know I have a strong affection for the complete works of Ms. Jennifer Connelly. And by complete works, I mean her talent, her face, her body of work AND her body, thank you very much. (Plus she's still so beautiful...) Anyway, as I was perusing through the Toronto Film Festival titles and jotting down which flicks I wanted to see ... there it was: Jen's name! She's got a movie called Reservation Road at Toronto ... and it looks pretty good!

From writer/director Terry George (In the Name of the Father, Hotel Rwanda) comes the story of ... well, I'm trying to remain relatively 'spoiler-free' for this movie, but the IMDb tells us it's "a drama that revolves around two fathers whose families and lives tragically converge with the death of a child." Sounds like your typically uplifting festival fare, but with Mr. George's track record -- and a cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Mira Sorvino and the aforementioned mega-goddess -- it sounds like a title I'll definitely be taking in next month. Plus the film was co-written by the author of the novel, which in my opinion is always a positive sign.

Focus Features will release Reservation Road on October 19, but if you're as intrigued as I am, you can check out the new trailer over at IGN Movies. I however will NOT be watching the trailer, so please let me know what you think of it. (Without spoiling anything.)

Hard as it is to believe in this lull of summer hallmarked by the usual hot-weather popcorn fare, we're edging ever closer to fall and the major fall film festivals, and Cinematical Indie will be bringing you heaps of coverage this year. Labor Day weekend, as always, means Telluride. Last year was our first year to cover the Telluride Film Festival; the fest is unique in that it doesn't announce its lineup until it actually starts, but that doesn't stop them from selling out passes well in advance of the fest every year, as film lovers converge on the small mountain town and triple its population for the weekend.

If you want to hit Telluride this year and haven't bought your passes yet, be prepared to pony up the big bucks; the Acme and Festival passes are sold out already, so you'll have to score yourself a $3500 patron pass if you want to attend. And good luck finding lodging in town at this point, unless you also want to dig deep and rent a spendy luxury vacation home -- but hey, if you that, drop me a line so I can come hang out -- we can talk movies while soaking in your jacuzzi overlooking the scenic San Juan mountains.

Focus Features has some pretty good films under their belt, some of which they start their upcoming film preview with -- a collection of clips that has found its way to YouTube. There's Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, to name a few. But after a re-cap of some of their past successes, the collection offers some footage -- equipped with that cheesy, uber-positive voice over designed to pump you up -- of their upcoming offerings: Evening, Talk to Me, Eastern Promises, Lust, Caution, Reservation Road and Atonement.

Some of the films Cinematical has already shown you glimpses of before. Jessica Barnes and Chris Ullrich previously led you to trailers of Talk to Me, the Don Cheadle biopic about Ralph "Petey" Greene, and in April, I posted about a trailer for Keira Knightley's Atonement, so there's nothing new to see for those films. However, there are some moving glances at the other up-and-coming films that should be worth our attention. Evening, which is the latest Michael Cunningham adaptation, again brings together a huge female cast from Glenn Close and Meryl Streep to Vanessa Redgrave and Toni Collette. All you get in the preview are glimpses of their faces, but there's also a trailer here that you check out, before the ten-hankie film is released this week. There's also David Cronenberg's dark drama Eastern Promises, which looks visually great, and I imagine will be all the better in the right mood, without the PR speak narrating it. The same goes for Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, that geared up last May. Finally, there's Reservation Road, which has possibilities considering the cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly, but all you get in this blip are a few quick shots before seeing each one of them looking super-somber.

With a handful of roles full of Oscar potential, Reservation Road is putting together a decent little cast to go along with its powerful storyline. Mira Sorvino has signed on to star opposite Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly (yes, it appears she's now officially attached) in the pic, which will be directed by Terry George and begin shooting sometime this fall.

Road, which is based off the novel written by John Burnham Schwartz (who also penned the script) tells the story of two families who collide when one father (Ruffalo) accidentally kills the son of another (Phoenix) in a tragic hit-and-run accident. Things heat up when Ruffalo battles with the decision to either turn himself in or quietly disappear, while Phoenix makes it his mission to find the man who killed his son. Sorvino will play Ruffalo's ex-wife, with Connelly playing Phoenix's wife. Sounds like a real upper, huh?

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