YMMV / Arlington Road

• Harsher in Hindsight: The ending involves Michael driving like crazy to prevent an apparent terrorist attack, screaming at people to move out of the way while nearly hitting several of them. This is uncomfortable to watch from The New '10s onward, after terrorists driving into crowds of people in busy urban centers became a much more common form of terrorism.
• Magnificent Bastard: "Oliver Lang", apparent real name William Fenimore, seems to be the utterly plain neighbor of Michael Faraday, but in truth is an orchestrator of an anti-government terrorist operation. Driven to villainy by his parents' abuse by the government, Oliver murdered his friend as a youth and stole his identity to cover up his own suspicious past and hide as an average citizen. Oliver becomes one of the masterminds for a homegrown terrorist group, specializing in bombing government targets and then framing one person for it. Befriending Michael in present, Oliver turns Michael into his lastest puppet, driving the man to paranoia and rage throughout the film before tricking him into delivering a bomb straight to the FBI headquarters, killing Michael and getting the whole scheme pinned on him as Oliver ends the film ready to move with his family to a new location and start the process all over again. Polite even in the face of danger, genuinely caring for his family, and holding an apparent real affection for Michael's son Grant, Oliver's brilliance is matched only by his sincere belief in the Necessary Evil of taking down the government.
• Moral Event Horizon: The villains are implied to have crossed that long before the start of the movie.
• Paranoia Fuel: The entire film. Just for doing a good deed, an innocent family man trying to grieve the wrongful death of a loved one ends up uncovering the sinister past and future plans of a group of terrorists hiding behind the facade of a typical suburban family and has his life ruined, ended, and reputation beyond death completely obliterated by those same people. And everyone responsible for it gets away scot free, planning on restarting the cycle elsewhere.
• She Really Can Act: Joan Cusack, who's usually associated with comedic roles, absolutely sells the creepiness in her scene with Hope Davis, who plays Bridges' love interest, when they ran into each other outside of a shopping mall.
  Brooke had just left Michael a message confirming his suspicions about the Langs. When she hangs up, she turns, only to run into Cheryl, who seems happy to see her.
  Cheryl Lang (with a forced grin): ...I knew it was you! Hi! (Brooke says hi) What are you doing here?
  Brooke: Just shopping! What are you doing here?
  Cheryl (quickly staring away and back at her): Shopping.
  Brooke: G-great.
  Cheryl: Yeah. (Cheryl's face grows sad.)
  Brooke dies off-screen later.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The premise is heavily tied to the post-Oklahoma City bombing but pre-9/11 period. More exactly the suspicion that others were involved in that incident and the general fear of militia types that existed.
• The Woobie: Michael and his entire family, but especially Michael himself.

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