Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Peter MacNeill, Stephen MacHattie and Ashton Holmes
Director: David Cronenberg
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Tom (Viggo Mortensen), a small town restaurant owner, becomes a national hero after defending his establishment from vicious armed robbers. This, in turn, brings Tom's secret past back to haunt him, threatening his family and everything he's grown to love.
"A History of Violence" is one of those movies that I recognize is a great piece of work, but one that is so intense that I don't want to watch it again. The acting, the well-crafted script, and the plausable, very realistic characters and situations make it the sort of movie that makes your skin crawl while you watch it. But it's not a fun horror movie creep-out sensation, but rather a chilling reaction to the tale unfolding on film.
If you want a thriller that feels firmly grounded in reality and a movie that will make you think, this is a film you need to check out. Just don't expect to find the sort of mood you're used to in a Will Smith or Harrison Ford vehicle. No one's in the mood for wisecracks after brutally dispatching a fellow human being, and you won't be in the mood to hear one either.
