A History of Violence (2005)

On paper, the set-up for this movie seems fairly conventional: a mild-mannered small-town diner owner named Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is living an idyllic life in the Indiana countryside with his wife Edie (Maria Bello) and two children when suddenly one night just before closing....two thugs enter his diner and start threatening everyone, start to get violent...and Tom channels the hero inside him to dispatch them and save everyone, then becoming a local hero known all around which starts to attract some attention from the wrong people who go after him and his family.

It almost sounds inspiring....or quirky....or maybe the setup for your typical Liam Neeson action vehicle post-2010. :/ But of course, it's ALL about the execution and thanks to director David Cronenberg (The Fly, Eastern Promises, Naked Lunch) adapting this story from a hyperviolent graphic novel, it's anything BUT conventional.  Also co-starring Ed Harris and William Hurt who received an Oscar nominaion for his performance, this is a tense psychological thriller about one man, his violent nature, and how it affects those around him.  

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE PORTRAYED VIA MOVIE CLIPS

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon

Editor: Ella Gershon

Producer: Marlene Gershon

Transcript

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE - 2005

Directed by David Cronenberg

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, Ashton Holmes, Peter MacNeill, Stephen McHattie, Greg Byrk, Kyle Schmid, Sumela Kay, Gerry Quigley, Deborah Drakeford, Heidi Hayes, Aidan Devine, and William Hurt

Genre:  Psychological Thriller (Audio clip)

On paper, the set-up for this movie seems fairly conventional: a mild-mannered small-town diner owner named Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is living an idyllic life in the Indiana countryside with his wife Edie (Maria Bello) and two children when suddenly one night just before closing....two thugs enter his diner and start threatening everyone, start to get violent...and Tom channels the hero inside him to dispatch them and save everyone, then becoming a local hero known all around which starts to attract some attention from the wrong people who go after him and his family.

It almost sounds inspiring....or quirky....or maybe the setup for your typical Liam Neeson action vehicle post-2010. :/ But of course, it's ALL about the execution and thanks to director David Cronenberg adapting this story from a hyperviolent graphic novel, it's anything BUT conventional which is what makes it so great!

From the opening credits just statically watching these two thieves/thugs slowly and quietly flee a motor lodge but not before they brutally murder the couple running this lodge....and their young daughter....all off screen before heading off to Tom's little Indiana town. Something just feels very off-putting from the get-go...which is certainly helped by the casting as one of the lead thug is played by Stephen McHattie who just has that menacing thug look DOWN. :o

Beyond that, Cronenberg films the violence pretty unflinchingly - action beats which in most genre films would be presented as fun and flippant are generally shown to be horrifying. It's all very quick and brutal - the film also features two sex scenes between Tom and Edie which are both very frank and a bit uncomfortable, especially the latter one which is after most of the violence has erupted and we see more of Tom's former life...as a brutal Philadelphia mobster thug named Joey.

And seeing him as both Tom and his moments drifting into Joey - he changed identity and had been hiding out for the past two decades unbeknownst to his wife - serves as a reminder of how amazing an actor Viggo Mortensen has always been, this MIGHT even be his best overall performance. It's just genuinely impressive to watch this character who has been putting on such a convincing act for so long of buttoning himself down that when we see his just briefly switch back into who he was - which starts with that diner scene - he shows this shift in very subtle ways, like in how his voice gets a bit more forceful or his gait or just the way he turns his neck portray some one who is much more confident but also somewhat unhinged.

Maria Bello is also outstanding in these scenes as we watch her process this new information, how her trust with him dissipates, and how she deals with that - it's a much more complicated performance than what we're used to with this sort of character, much more than the typical "Everything you've told me....is a lie!" tropes that spouses or love interests are allowed to express in most screenplays. Josh Olsen's screenplay (which Cronenberg apparently punched up) never takes the most convenient way through so much of the sticky situations it presents.

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

It certainly felt as though for quite some time…..if you had a disturbing thriller from an auteur featuring gruesome violence, there was only ONE man you could hire to compose a suitably grim and operatic score.  I’m talking Seven, The Silence of the Lambs, The Cell, and The Fly….and that would be Toronto’s OWN Howard Shore. (Audio clip) 

Now to be fair, Shore has since become more well-known for composing rousing Oscar-winning scores for the Lord of the Rings trilogy but he has always been a long-time collaborator with Cronenberg, who also hails from Canada.  And here he delivers a sneakily effective emotional orchestral score for another dark tale….though interestingly, the music is not often as heard when the actual TITULAR violence is being perpetrated on-screen.  It’s actually used more as an accent for the emotional scenes in between….and never better than the conclusion for this film.  In a savvy decision by Cronenberg, Olsen, and crew….there is actually ZERO dialogue for roughly the last ten minutes of the movie.  (Audio clip) 

This leaves Shore’s music to do much of the heavy lifting, along with perfect worldless performances from Viggo and Maria.  That whole final scene is basically just a family dinner – meatloaf – and Tom/Joey has just arrived home from a long, treacherous trip to Philadelphia.  The rest of his family are already eating, he walks in, they each look at him in nervous, quizzical manners…..and then he sits town.  It’s tense and awkward – Maria’s Edie is noticeably NOT making eye contact with him while Viggo’s Tom is staring forward in shame.  Things are NOT good….his daughter gets him a plate, his son serves him sides….and then as Tom looks forward seeking SOME kind of acknowledgement, Edie looks back at him with both anger and tears in her eyes….and then he looks back.  FADE to BLACK.  It’s open-ended for sure but a truly BRILLIANT ending….dare I say one of the best of the 21st Century.  And this music plays a HUGE part heard over it….this track is elegantly titled, “The Return.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

There are a few BIG performances in this movie and I would say that most of them work….there’s the late, great William hurt appearing in the third act as JOEY’S mobster brother from Philly whom he reunites with….eventually violently in the third act.  It’s an entertaining performance for sure but what always nagged at me is that HE received an Oscar nomination while neither Bello nor Viggo did…and they were much more deserving.  Admittedly it IS fun to hear him use the term BRO-HIM… (Audio clip) 

Unfortunately there is one bigger performance which has NEVER quite worked for me and that would be Ashton Holmes playing Jack, Tom and Edie’s teenage son.  On paper, his character has an arc which makes sense in the context of the film….but the execution just doesn’t back that up.  I’m honestly not sure if it’s on the page because he IS given some cringy lines but I just never quite buy his character…..I get it teenage boys can be intense but he’s just ALWAYS intense, even when just sitting down for breakfast.  One of my favorite podcasts referred to this actor as “Jesse AINT-enberg” as he has that look for sure…..and here’s the thing though, Eisenberg was the perfect age for this as this was just a couple of years after he did Roger Dodger – he would have KILLED it in with this role, alas Holmes just doesn’t and remains the weakest aspect of the movie. (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Sorry but I have to go back to that diner scene AGAIN….because it is just SUCH an effective way to open up this story up.  And to think that we’ve seen a MILLION sequences like this….armed thugs trying rob a restaurant at gunpoint: sometimes things go smoothly though more frequently, things go awry.  Well, things go awry here to disturbingly bloody levels….I can STILL remember seeing this in a theater and most of the audience just GASPING – myself included – as the camera pans down to McHattie’s face on the floor after being shot by Tom head-on LITERALLY…now missing a jaw with blood pouring out of it.  Few filmmakers have been more adept at jolting the audience with gnarly imagery than Cronenberg – this scene does the job. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

And SPEAKING of Cronenberg….I can also remember when this first came out in the fall of 2005, it was looked upon as a bit of a departure from him after almost three decades of more fantastical stories, often featuring body horror.  This just felt more contemporary, less extreme.  I mean for comparison’s sake, the last film of his which I had seen on the big screen was CRASH from ’96 – starring James Spader and Holly Hunter – which also remains the ONLY NC-17 rated film I saw on the big screen.  I’m also fairly confident that I have NEVER seen so many walk-outs.  That’s just what he DOES….he crafts stories designed to make the audience feel uncomfortable.  With A History of Violence, he pulls that off again….just with more subtlety. Even within the constraints of a more grounded story, he delivered another gem, providing an unsettling look at violence and the complicated relationship which a seemingly normal man and his family has with it .  For directing one of his best films, David Croneneberg is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5 

Happy twentieth anniversary to one of the best films of the early ‘00’s from one of our TRUE genre masters.  Among his filmography, I would DEFINITELY rank this up there with The Fly and Dead Ringers.

Streaming on Prime Video

And that ends another JAW-DROPPING review! Get it? :P