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A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)


If you know anything about David Cronenburg, you might be surprised to learn that he directed this film, as well as the recent Eastern Promises. Most of his previous work, such as Eraserhead, Scanners, The Fly, Existenz, and Dead Ringers, has focused on the artfully grotesque, with special attention to the relationship between technology and the body. But A History of Violence, while retaining close examination of the body, is a mostly straightforward tale about Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen). A small town diner owner, regular good guy, with a wife he loves and two healthy kids, Tom seems to embody the promise of Americana. But when he stops a robbery in his diner, he inadvertently becomes a hero, drawing the attention of the press and the praise and shock of many townsfolk, surprised to find such instincts in their humble and ordinary neighbor. Soon after, Tom's life is invaded by Philadelphia gangsters, convinced he is Joey, their long-lost associate. They bring with them a pervading and unsettling presence, questions about the violence contained in Tom, and a relentless pursuit of their agenda, forcing Tom to address personal demons and come up with some answers.

The film confronts this predicament with an honest ease; each of Tom's family members has a puzzled reaction, not the least of which is Tom's son Jack (Ashton Holmes), a loner who is bullied, but now questions whether his father's inherent violence is heredity and might exist in him. Viggo Mortensen turns in a riveting performance: I have seen so many colors on this actors, most notably the good and noble Aragorn (Lord of the Rings) and the complicated, quiet mobster in Eastern Promises, and it consistently amazes me how he builds such diverse characters with so little affectation. Here, he fully embodies the character of Tom Stall through a series of shaky changes. At the beginning, Mortensen is simple, unaffected, unassuming, kind and solid. But as the story progresses and he is forced to confront questions about himself, he becomes another character entirely, and it's not easy to tell exactly how he does it. Somehow, in the minutiae of expression, tone, and body language, he transforms before our eyes. It is a remarkably assured and subtle performance. The film also boasts strong supporting performances from Maria Bello as his sturdy yet increasingly frazzled wife, Ed Harris and William Hurt as gangsters, and Peter MacNeil as the friendly, sharp sheriff.


The film contains scenes of shockingly vivid violence, but it is not for thrilling effect. Remember that discussion last month about the film Funny Games, which asked it's viewers to witness sickening and thoughtless violence, but to focus on the after effects and emotion caused by such violence? Many thought that the experiment in that film was smug, but in this film, the same examination is pondered with little fanfare. Cronenburg admits in the commentary that the brief close-ups of the physical gore were to redirect the fleeting exhilaration of violent action onto the realistic and brutal violence done to the body, and the ramifications of those acts. In this it is extremely successful: we are never allowed to cheer Tom's destruction of a foe without being forced to confront the physical and emotional consequences.

From the masterful opening sequence, an imbalanced and tension-fraught tone is set. The score by Howard Shore is deliberately cheesy in places, evoking that idealized view of "honest Americana" and then easing us into the horror. When most films feel incomplete at less than 2 hours, this film runs a fast 100 minutes and not a single scene feels rushed or overweighted. It is also refreshing to see a film where the only sex scenes are between a married couple, and they are used to establish dynamics in their relationship, not to gratuitously exploit nudity or contrived seediness. The infamous ending may seem simple or incomplete, but earns it's suspense because of honest emotion and real corollaries that do not provide clear-cut resolutions.