A History of Violence
By: Mark Runyon | Category: On DVD | 03/13/06 | 11:08 PM
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Grade: B+ | Genre: Suspense
Summary: A History of Violence is a slowly evolving, crafty suspense that toys with your expectations.
Director David Cronenberg is perhaps best known for taking on bold and daring scripts, even if the results prove largely uneven. He's known for the TBS special The Fly, from stage to screen adaptation M. Butterfly, and the twisted fetish piece where car crashes spark eroticism, Crash. He's managed to make a name for himself with his peculiar brand of sensibilities that he introduces to his works rather than a distinctive directorial style. This was never truer than with his most successful effort to date A History of Violence. Violence is a slowly evolving, crafty suspense that toys with your expectations. |
Violence opens on a hot summer scorcher in Indiana. Two shifty eyed wanders are preparing to leave behind another fleabag motel as they run from their unspoken past. These bad guys don't need to wear black hats. You can see their collective sins lurking within their intense glare. Next, we flash to a sleepy little town, which is a Norman Rockwell painting that has leapt off the canvas. It is a world of 4th of July parades and church bake sales, where they only see grisly murders infiltrate their peacefully abode through CSI. It's a place where someone with a past can only keep it under wraps for about two seconds. Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) runs a small diner in town where everyone stops in for breakfast and chews the fat with their neighbors. Tom still has the spark of love with his mischievous wife Edie (a sensuous Maria Bello), and he has two children that fill out his happiness. The stale TV movie of the week feel gets scrapped the moment our criminals roll into town and end up sliding up to the counter in Tom's diner. Holding his customers at gunpoint, Tom springs into action, smashing a coffee pot across one of their skulls then wielding the criminal's gun to racket off a clip into his partner. Tom is quickly declared a local hero as his face is plastered all over newspapers as well as the nightly news covering the region. While no one questions his heroism or his motives, there is a nagging wonder as how an ordinary citizen could suddenly morph into the nimble, gun blasting James Bond.
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| A History of Violence |
| Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt & Ashton Holmes |
| Director: David Cronenberg |
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| View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
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It doesn't take long before a black car that screams government issue, rolls up on the diner. A sinister Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) sits over a cup of coffee, claiming Tom is actually Joey. Joey being a mob guy from Philly who disappeared years ago after a tangling of the families worthy of the Godfather. Tom looks incredulous at these men's wild claim of mistaken identity. They depart without incident, but they aren't leaving without Joey in a duffle bag in the trunk. The Stalls inform the police of the encounter, but Tom seems weary of really pressing the issue and bringing Barney Fife into his business. Is he really Joey with this mysterious past, or will he be forced to defend his family against these wanton mobsters who will employ any lascivious method to bludgeon him into submission?
Reading this you are probably thinking this film seems rather pedestrian, covering ground we've stomped over a hundred times before. I had the same impression when I first saw the trailer, but the film is made in its miserly protection of the truth, only letting necessary information leak out drips at a time. This film carries a great tension as we wash into these pivotal moments where you think you have a clear idea of where Cronenberg is taking us, only to be cleverly redirected. The film's ability to take the hatchet to expectations is its ace in the hole. Cronenberg gets great performances out of the entire cast. Bello does a great job sorting through the revelations, trying to dissect if her entire life with this man has been a sham. Harris is claustrophobic in his ability to hover over their lives. He's ever present and stares a hole through them with that dead eye. Viggo makes good on his Lord of the Rings promise, putting in a great performance as our resident man of mystery. He has a real openness that lets you in, but once you're there you just aren't sure what exactly he's capable of.
A History of Violence follows Cronenberg's taste for the bold with grisly violence and borderline explicit sex scenes. They are snapshots of life, but most directors aren't comfortable with such an unfiltered look. He holds the frame a few seconds longer than we're used to. If this picture has a problem, it's in Cronenberg's lack of style. All top notch directors (Tarantino, Scorsese, Spielberg, Coppola -- take your pick) have an inherient style that you can't mistake one of their pictures for anyone elses. This element really adds an additional dimension to the film. Past the material, Violence lacks those touches of flair. Also, the film's first act is slow moving until the violence takes over. These are rather nit picky issues to harp on. This is a very good film built on tense suspense, whose mysteries slowly unravel. The shots that take in the violence, without immediately looking away, may unsettle some, but for those who have conquered the weak stomach will enjoy continually rediscovering this film.
Originally Posted: October 14, 2006
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