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Arlington Road 15 rating

Jeff Bridges suspects his neighbour of being a terrorist in this twitchy, paranoid thriller.

Crime 1998 118 mins

Director: Mark Pellington

CC

Overview

Jeff Bridges is the healthily suspicious neighbour, widower of an ex-FBI agent, who suspects the family next door are harbouring serious terrorist intent. A prime example of the pre-9/11 paranoid thriller, produced in the wake of the Waco siege and Timothy McVeigh bombings, it reflects the fevered atmosphere around America's home-grown militias, before Islamic terrorism became the bogeyman du jour.

In an intriguing piece of reverse casting, Jeff Bridges (who might be expected to take the villain role) adds a nervy uncertainty to the role of the professor who's unsure whether to trust his instincts. While Tim Robbins plays on his likeable, everyman persona to instil those same doubts in the viewer. Director Michael Pellington ratchets up the tension at every opportunity to craft a memorably twitchy thriller.

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