A History of Violence

B

I don't get what the big fuss about this movie was all about. 5 stars from Straits Times? All those As on Yahoo Movies? It's an okay movie, sure. But it's not really that great. That's not just me speaking. It's really just not that great a movie.

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) lived a quiet, happy life in the small town in Indiana. The tranquility of the sleepy town was broken, however, when a pair of criminals tried to pull a robbery on the diner where Tom lived. He ended up killing both of them; and the next thing he knew, he was a country hero. His reknowned fame subsequently brought unwanted visitors, in the form of Fogarty (Ed Harris), who insists that Tom is indeed Joey Cusack, a gangster from Philadelphia who still has old debts to settle. Tom's unheaved life now becomes even more so as Fogarty's methods involved terrorising Tom's wife, Edie, (Maria Bello) and children.

What I can say about the plot of A History of Violence is that it wasn't exactly like what I (or anyone else, for that matter) expected. That said, the story still didn't veer too far off the beaten road. Cutting in at just about 90 minutes, I'm rather impressed at how director David Cronenberg managed to pump so much storyline. That's why, I suppose, the movie didn't leave as deep an impression as it should.

A theme that is prevalent throughout A History of Violence is: must one really fight violence with violence. This, however, is only touched briefly, if not reluctantly. A subplot that is aimed to bring out this question, concerning Tom's son being bullied in high-school, would be forgotten when the end credits role. What would be remembered most are 1) Maria Bello's full frontal; 2) gore. The former needs no further comments; but A History of Violence's violence matches that of Saving Private Ryan, if comparisons may be made.

Maria Bello received an oscar nomination for her role as the loving Edie who becomes tormented by her husbands secrets. Viggo Mortensen is quite an enigma. I don't know if it was intentional that he was intended to be so bland and brooding. But it became rather boring sometimes. We are supposed to see, I think, changes in Tom Stalling; but either Mortensen or Cronenberg failed to bring that up to the screen.
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