Violence

October 2, 2005

As explained in the trailer, History of Violence has Viggo Mortenson as Tom Stall, a small town diner owner who becomes a small town celebrity when he kills a pair of stickup artists when they attempt to rob his business. The publicity brings in east coast bad guys though, who swear that Tom Stall is not a normal guy, but a man with a shady, violent past.

I’m a little surprised by the raves that History of Violence is getting. It is certainly a good movie, well shot and well acted and so methodically paced that when it explodes in fits it has a genuinely visceral effect. After leaving the theater and letting it sit in my head a little bit, you sort of realize how thin it is, in terms of plot and character development. Once its concepts are laid out, it really is a matter of getting through the checkpoints. It is agonizingly slow at times, but this is mitigated by a 90 minute running time. It was better than Road to Perdition, at any rate. Warning: there is some unintentional comedy involved with the wide range of “Philadelphia” accents used in this movie. William Hurt, in particular, seems like he’s from a whole ‘nother planet.

Posted in Moving Pictures