Film Review: A History of Violence (2005) B-

Date Viewed: 6/5/06
Venue: DVD

I really, really, really wanted to like A History of Violence, David Cronenberg’s(!) adaptation of the graphic novel(!) of the same name. It had Viggo Mortensen, an Oscar nominated William Hurt (supporting actor), and was on many critics top ten lists for 2005.

The story is a simple one. Small town average joe Tom Stall (Viggo) has a loving wife, two kids, and owns a nice little diner in rural Indiana. He’s thrust into the spotlight when two murdering thugs attempt to rob the diner and Tom coldly kills them in self-defense. The heroic story makes waves and is picked up by the national media, Tom’s face is plastered on the news. Shady figures from Tom’s buried past see the reports and track Tom down…

There’s obviously more too it than that, but I’m not going to give it away here. I will say there are several graphically violent scenes throughout the film. These are extraordinarily vivid and effective. It’s the stuff in between the violence that bugs me.

First of all, there is some hokey dialog. I suppose that’s to be somewhat expected from a comic adaptation, but there’s no men in tights running amidst cg landscapes, so my patience for hokiness is diminished.

There are also some character inconsistencies that just take me right out of the film. Maria Bello is saddled with an underwritten wife character. There’s a racy, spontaneous sex scene that’s right out of Cronenberg’s Crash, and completely wrong for these characters. And I guess showing up in one scene and speaking with long, long pauses is all it takes to nab an Oscar nom, as William Hurt proves. Someone should alert Shatner

I don’t dislike A History of Violence. The tension and dramatic build, especially in the first two acts, is very effective. The violence is well done and joltingly real. But I just get a feeling this movie is…undercooked. The pieces are all here, the characters just need a little more work.