Is Arlington Road a really clever thriller or a really dumb thriller? Let me explain why I think it falls on the clever side of the line.

For a start, Jeff Bridges is stunning in the role of Michael Faraday, the every-person character who gets swept up into the world of terrorism. I was never much of a fan of his until his performance in Fearless and, while he can definitely put a foot wrong (eg, The Big Lebowski), I've been a convert ever since. His progression from average college professor to paranoid, raving lunatic is superb. Another great performance is given by Joan Cusack as Cheryl Lang: neighbourly, creepy, friendly, scary all at once.

On the counter-side, Tim Robbins seems to be coming straight from Over-actors Anonymous. Nothing about his performance is subtle; every sentence, every look is filled with menace. A little more ambiguity about his role would have been nice.

Plot-wise, a lot of comparisons have been made with The Game. While there are some similarities - plot twists galore; who can you trust? is it believable? - the major difference between the two movies is that Arlington Road held my attention, while I found The Game quite boring. I also found the issue of believability better addressed in Arlington Road. This is the skill of the movie. There are quite a few events that, as they happen, seem incredible. Coincidences, slip-ups etc seem contrived to get the plot moving. After the final reel, however, it becomes clear that many of these events were deliberate. I don't want to give away the ending but the interpretation of earlier events in the film change in light of the film's conclusion.

It's also got a lot of interesting things to say about paranoia, while avoiding having a definitive stance on the issue. On the one hand, Arlington Road seems to be suggesting that we are all much too paranoid, and that this paranoia is leading to people getting killed. At the same time, it implies that things are much worse than they seem and we should suspect everybody. Unfortunately, because of the film's ending, the latter message seems to be the one people are leaving with and it's not clear to me that we need to be any more paranoid than we are already.

Also, the opening credits and the opening sequence are impressive. Normal, everyday things, viewed in the right way, can look very creepy indeed. Perspective is everything; objectivity unattainable. Our frame of reference, or where we are in our lives, colours everything we see and affects our interpretation of even the most mundane of events.

Overall, I'd say this is a really clever thriller because I didn't see the end coming, because the ending made me rethink everything that came before, and because it raises some interesting issues about paranoia. Any movie that can stay on my mind for quite some time after leaving the cinema and that raises hard to answer questions is a clever film. Arlington Road does just that.

Rating: D