A History of Violence opens with a tracking shot outside of a motel with two guys leaving their room and checking out. You can tell they are bad. One goes into the office to check out and comes out and then the other goes in and we see the first has murdered the office staff. It's presented so matter of factly and there is no shock or remorse in either of the villians so that it has a rather chilling effect. We then cut to a small town where Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) runs a diner and we also meet his wife Edie (Maria Bello) and his children Jack (Ashton Holmes) and Sarah (Heidi Hayes). We see everyday life, Tom and Edie seem very much in love, the diner is Norman Rockwellesque, Jack is picked on in high school, and young Sarah is cute.
Our villians come into the diner and attempt to rob it. Just as they are about to kill someone, Tom jumps into action and saves the day, killing the two villians. He becomes a local hero and makes all the news channels. The rest of the movie is about him dealing with his new fame. I won't say more because it would be giving things away.
The movie was good; it was engaging and kept moving. It's been most recognized for it's performances. I didn't mention Ed Harris or William Hurt, but they are both in it and were both very strong. Hurt got a Oscar nomination as Supporting Actor and while he was good, I think his role was small enough that I'm surprised he got it. I thought Don Cheadle in Crash was more deserving.
The film is directed by David Cronenberg and has a small town with violent underbelly feel somewhere between David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. It's based on a 1997 graphic novel which focused more on Tom and the movie focused a bit more on the family. I liked what the movie tried to do but wish it would have gone a little further with it. The end focuses on Tom and teh wrap up leaves a little to much for you to fill in on your own. As a result the movie isn't really a family drama, a crime story, or a suspense yarn, but rather a bit of all, which is pretty fun.
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