Oliver and Cheryl Lang head up the perfect suburban family at least, thats how they appear. When widower Michael Faraday begins to suspect his far-too-normal neighbours of being domestic terrorists, absolutely no one believes him: his wife had worked for the FBI until her death in the line of duty, and hes considered to be acting out his grief. Naturally, Faraday begins his own investigations, leading to a second act where its deliberately unclear whether this is a film about secret terrorists at the heart of America, or one mans increasingly out of control behaviour oh, who are we kidding? Its a film about secret terrorists at the heart of America. Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack are wonderfully creepy as the anti-government criminals murdering and bombing their way across the country, and Jeff Bridges gets to do his stoic face a lot as the lone man trying to stop them. Where this takes a turn for the magnificent is when Oliver lets slip that a car bomb is on its way to the local FBI headquarters with Faradays son a passenger in the vehicle, leaving our hero going all out to stop the van and save the day in a tense, frenetic chase sequence. It transpires that Oliver deliberately gave up the information. When a wild-eyed Faraday drives straight through FBI security into the car park in the basement of the building to find the van empty, he realises that the only person with no authorisation to be there is him. The bomb is in his own car, and hes just delivered it and then it detonates, taking down the building and everyone in it, including Faraday. Thats how the Langs operate: they find a patsy, someone with a history of erratic behaviour or a possible motive for wanting to hurt the government, and frame him or her for their crimes. Theyve solved the problem most terrorists find themselves faced with: the fact that, although no one can stop a martyr, martyrdom is a one-shot deal. They make their own martyrs, and move on to the next target.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
