A History of Violence

October 22, 2005

Rated: R Runtime: 96 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

David Cronenberg for the most part is a pretty twisted director, and almost always selects films that make the average movie viewer shake their head, saying WTF as they walk out of the auditorium. A History of Violence is another one of those movies!

A History of Violence The movie opens with a couple of tough characters sitting in a car outside a little motel on the side of the road. One guy is older and looks a lot like the great Lance Henrickson, the other, a little less creepy, looks like he could actually be Viggo’s little brother. Anywhoo these two guys are just chatting back and forth about being late and they need to check out so they can back on the road. This scene is pretty confusing as it takes a very quick detour down crazy lane without any warning. Younger thug goes inside, goes behind the counter to get what looks like a bottle of water as the camera pans back and you see a man and woman with their lids peeled back, blood everywhere. I’m thinking wait a minute where did this come from? Then it goes even further when a little girl opens the door and sees her parents splattered everywhere and this guy standing over them. Young thug tells her it will be OK and she should go back in her room and stay there. Yeah right! The scene ends with the thug reaching in his waistband pulling out a gun, pointing it at the little girl. Just as Cronenberg peels away you hear the shot and the scene changes. I realize that sounds like too much plot to expose but I assure you it’s not. In fact this isn’t the plot at all. I am just pointing out the tone so if you do decide to go check this movie out the shock and awe that Cronenberg is known for won’t catch you off guard. Now that we got that out of the way, to the real plot we go.

Tom Stall (Mortensen) is the owner of a small town diner who lives in the middle of nowhere and according to all around him… would never hurt a fly. Tom is married to his EXTREMELY hot wife Edie (Bello) who is the local defense attorney. They have a teenage boy and a younger girl that seem like pretty average kids. On the surface they look like the perfect mid-western family.

Tom is working late one night and just as the Stall Diner is about to close the two bad motor scooters mentioned above come in for a quick bite. Tom politely points out that they are closing and he can’t serve them this late and they should turn around and go. Of course these two guys want more than Punch and Pie so they aren’t planning to go anywhere. Young thug attacks Tom’s waitress on the orders of older thug and tells him to “do her” if Tom doesn’t cooperate. In a flash Tom busts a coffee pot on the face of older thug making him drop his .45, jumps the counter picks up the gun and fires 6 perfectly placed shots in the thugs chest blasting him through the front door, gets stabbed in the foot by barely conscious older thug and without a seconds hesitation fires the last shot into the top of his head, splattering brain and goo all over the place… Rock On!

Tom is labeled a local hero and although he tries to avoid the limelight, he not only gets his picture in the paper, he gets his face on national news. Uh Oh… not good! From this point on people from Tom’s past come around to pay him a visit so they can catch up on old times. Tom apparently isn’t just a diner owner after all! This is good place to stop or else I will give away the whole point of the movie, which I won’t.

A History of Violence is one of those movies that people are either going to love or they are going to hate the crap out of it. I liked it quite a bit but there were quite a few things that didn’t work for me. The role Hurt plays is terribly miscast and Viggo isn’t a strong enough actor to be Tom. Aragorn did OK in the role but there are so many other actors that would have been better IMHO. Those were the bad things. The good were really good - Ed Harris… Nuff Said! Maria Bello dresses up like a naughty cheerleader and lets us watch her have grudge sex in a stairwell, and last but not least the violence although in short controlled bursts is F’N awesome. Go see this movie if you are looking for something gritty and ‘real’ because that’s what you get and plenty of it with Cronenberg.

Posted by J.C. Edwards | Filed Under 4 Stars, Drama, Ed Harris, Maria Bello, R, Theatrical, Viggo Mortensen, William Hurt