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Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is a simple guy living in a simple town. He runs the local coffee shop and calls customers by their first name. The days pass peacefully and nothing much ever happens in Millbrook, Indiana. So when two criminals arrive late one night at Tom's store just before closing and threaten to kill those inside, it comes as quite a shock when Tom handily disposes of the thugs with so much precision and ease. Instantly hailed the town hero and showered with media attention, the soft-spoken Tom wants nothing more than to get business back to normal and return to his uncomplicated and quiet life. This won't happen.
Soon after, Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris) shows up at Tom's diner and calls him Joey, referring to a former prominent member of the East Coast mafia who eventually fled into the seclusion of the witness protection program. Is Tom who he says he is or has he faked a new identity for many years as Fogarty suggests? The action and violence referenced in the title begin to make their mark at this point. The threatening presence of Fogarty and his lackeys moves closer to Tom and his family, replacing pseudo-dangerous conversations from opposites sides of a lunch counter. Tom attempts to maintain restraint during mounting conflicts, but one can sense, as does his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), that Tom's skill with lethal weapons simply doesn't belong to man who runs a diner, and his violent tendencies make brief, yet abrupt, appearances.
Director David Cronenberg filmed each violent scene with the characters harming one another from close range, often within an arm's length, and usually resulting in cranial trauma. He seems to suggest that violence is an intimate part of our lives and ourselves; it's in our thoughts and difficult to escape, and, perhaps, part of our genetic code. It's interesting to note that as tensions build at home, Tom's son Jack, erupts suddenly at school, getting himself suspended for brutalizing a couple of relentless bullies. Even sex, which was displayed tenderly and playfully in an early scene involving Tom and Edie, is later transformed into an animalistic and violent confrontation between man and wife.
All the leads turn in solid performances. Various early Oscar talk surrounds Mortensen, Bello, and Harris. Mortensen hides inside of Tom Stall and we've totally forgotten his starring role in The Lord of the Rings. Bello plays just the right notes of sweet, sexy, and tough. We can imagine her as Tom's wife and mother of two, whether Tom's a mob guy or not. Mixing cordiality and quiet menace, Harris plays his role to perfection, as we would expect. Fogarty's character doesn't seem to stretch Harris' abilities much, but we've become so used to his strong performances, that it doesn't faze us when he delivers. The only acting weaknesses come from Tom and Edie's daughter, who is only used as a cloying symbol of innocence and a plot device, and William Hurt's portrayal as Tom's older brother. Hurt's appearance is brief, but never convincing, as he struggles to make the audience laugh one moment and then cringe the next.
A History of Violence, based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, is a film that questions the role violence plays in each of our lives. Is it possible to escape what is in us and lead a new life? And if so, what roles do truth, forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption play in our existence with others, some of whom we love, and others we detest? The film's final shot focuses on the eyes. If they are the window to our souls, then it's there that we must begin to answer these questions.
Grade: B+
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This movie was soooooo lame.
- f.g.
This movie was beyond boring and unbelievable from the first scene. Meant to be an exploration of inner violence, the dichotomy of the violent man versus the domesticated one (get it?), it just ends up being ponderous. Its other big idea, whether or not we can ever know another person, even when married to them, is equally pretentious. For all it's fine performances the film feels like an intellectual exercise and is actually boring to watch. C-
- Anon