Can one single man plan and carry out a terrorist attack in a country like the United States? That is the central point of the movie "Arlington Road", in Spanish "Temerás a tu vecino". When promoting it, they used the phrase: "Your paranoia is real".

It is a film that tells the story from the point of view of a man who loses his wife due to mistakes made in an FBI operation, of which she was a part. Or so it seems.

He is a history teacher, so his job as an educator involves thoroughly investigating different facts, including the most recent ones. And this, together with some details found about his neighbor, is what leads him to suspect them. Are they really what they say they are? Are they involved in something very serious? These are questions that little by little affect the behavior of the film's protagonist.

At this point I want to highlight the impeccable work of the main character, Michael Faraday, a role played by Jeff Bridges. His passion for history, as well as the loss of his wife, are a very strong conditioning factor in his personality.

The neighbors, best identified as the Langs, are a source of help at first, but then the many doubts that arise begin to twist the story. Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack are the most visible faces of this family.

Hope Davis, Brooke Wolfe in the film, becomes Michael's girlfriend, without knowing that this could affect her. The protagonist's past weighs heavily on her life.

Mason Gamble, who plays Michael's son Brady Lang, plays a key role in the story, although it is clear that he does not do so consciously.

I have given several details of this film, but I haven't really said anything that important, so you can watch it and you will surely enjoy it. At least to me it seems to be one of the best films.

For starters, the plot is related to terrorism, a subject that may catch some people's attention, but if that's not enough, the movie takes us to understand how a single man is capable of planning and executing a terrorist attack. Is it really possible?

One of the things I like most about movies is originality. That is, that they have things that are different from the rest. And this one delivers in many ways.

1. Music. It was made by Angelo Badalamenti. It manages to envelop the viewer thanks to its successful use, especially in the moments of greatest tension.
2. Suspense. There is plenty of it. As the film develops, and especially towards the end, the suspense and intrigue make it impossible to take your eyes off the film.
3. Direction. Mark Pellington, who excels above all else as a director of television series, was in charge of putting in place every detail of this story, to help us understand each point in a simple way.
4. The ending. No, I won't tell you about it, but I can tell you that it is not like the others. It is unexpected but, at the same time, predictable. How is that possible? If you see it, you will realize several reasons that prove what I say.

Additional information about Arlington Road, or You'll Be Afraid of You Neighbor

This is a movie I saw when I was only about 13 years old. And, it stuck in my memory. A lot has to do with how shocking the story is. Also because, after watching it, it led me to think about why it had that ending. I'm one of those who thinks a lot about things and until I didn't understand it, I wasn't going to stop analyzing the details. That allowed me to understand many things.

Perhaps for the Latino community the subject of terrorism is not as shocking, at least not as much as for Americans or Europeans, but this is a movie worth watching and enjoying.

As an additional detail, I would like to mention that some time after watching the movie, I wanted to watch it again to see other details, but since I had seen it on a TV channel, and I did not remember the name, it was very complicated for me. On the internet I searched for movies with a similar synopsis, wrote down part of the plot or things like that. And finally, after 17 years, I found it again.