A History of Violence

"A History of Violence" is a disturbing, powerful and entertaining movie. David Cronenberg's latest drama, based on a graphic novel, is so engaging that even the couple* who kept giggling behind me didn't distract me from the film. It takes a gripping movie to keep my mind off numbskulls sitting behind me.

The movie starts slowly and is a little corny - deliberately - in its set up of an ideal small town life. Viggo Mortenson, a self-proclaimed "luckiest son-of-a-bitch alive" owns a diner in a small Indiana town. When two roaming psychopaths cross his path, Mortenson's family's peaceful existence ends.

The movie isn't a traditional action or revenge film. Michael Bay, maker of "The Rock" and others of its ilk, makes action movies to deliver visceral thrills. It's a fine calling (I wish Bay did it better.) But "A History of Violence" is about making you question the visceral thrills that an action film can deliver. Cronenberg makes you feel for queasy for enjoying seeing people get whacked.

Viggo Mortenson does a great job at holding the center and playing a man caught between small town solitude and a seedy criminal world; you can imagine him in both. But the performance of the film, full of menace and humor, is given by William Hurt. When he hit the screen, even the pair behind me stopped their running commentary.

*Although they appeared to be in their late twenties, apparently they are made VERY uncomfortable by sex scenes. Perhaps it was a first date. This is NOT a good first date film, people; it's too bloody and the sex scenes are a filled with a little too much real emotion. Go see "Just Like Heaven" on your date instead.