Yes there are a few problems with ActiveRecord; it has been well used and has accreted lots of similar functions (a victim of its own success), and also it doesn't make it crystal clear when you are hitting the database.

IMO ORMs should be simple, unsurprising, and only have one or two methods which actually execute the sql and fetch data - they are there to make it simpler to build queries and map rows to objects, not to blur the line between fetching and manipulating data.