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Some movies – that is, every thriller that ever has been and ever will be made – beg that a certain portion of their stories remain secret between those who have seen it. Only a limited amount of information can be revealed to the uninitiated. There is a thrill in this concept, unless the thriller turns out to be terrible, audiences will almost certainly respect its wish to be largely forbidden. This is why I feel I am not allowed to describe the fantastic and lengthy opening shot of David Cronenberg’s new film “A History of Violence.” All I will say is that it and the several shots that follow are simply a test, like much of the movie. Cronenberg shows us a false movie, purposefully making us think this will be a different film than it really is.
What I will describe is the real movie, which comes after the opening credits. We are presented with scenes of Tom Stahll and his family of three. His young, adorable daughter is brought to school. His son plays baseball and is nearly roughed-up by the bully we all remember from countless high school films and know never existed in real high school. His wife Edie played by Maria Bello, a beautiful, loyal woman far below middle age seduces him back at home, late at night. Tom himself goes to work at his local diner in his bright, sunny American town and says hi to every one he knows along the way. His walk is scored to optimistic classical music. By this point we have been thrust into a place eons away from reality: American movie-land, full of all its cliches, traditions and routines, it’s very summation.
“A History of Violence” is based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, but here Cronenberg and screenwriter John Olson are using the source material to come up with one of the strangest satires on movies you might ever see. The plot soon reveals itself to be the oldest and most common recycled story line in the thriller and western genres: A man who thinks he has buried his past finds one day that it has come back to haunt him and forces him to fight for his family and his honor.
After Tom is forced to commit a murder at his diner in order to protect himself and his employees, he becomes a small-town American hero. There is, of course, not one bit of intervention from the law. However, Tom becomes reluctant and frightened by his actions and the consequences it brings, which start with an aging, injured gangster named Carl Fogarty played by Ed Harris appearing at his diner and claiming to know him as Joey.
From there on, the plot progresses and as it does, most of the performances accelerate with it. Mortensen’s performance, however, becomes more measured, and if there is a specific element of the film that movie fans will be able to appreciate, then it is Mortensen’s face. Gone is the handsome nobility and grandiosity of Aragorn; Cronenberg is probably the first director to realize how truly creepy Viggo Mortensen’s face can look.
As the film progresses, his expressions are cloaked in darkness and the light areas of his face look more pale and skeletal than they did at the film’s start. Mortensen keeps up with Cronenbergs camera shot for shot, always knowing when to come across as an action hero, when to come across as a parody of your average American dad and when to come across as a truly disturbing individual.
“A History of Violence” is not a perfect film; there is a subplot involving Tom’s son that should have been given more screen time. There are some outrageously violent images that Cronenberg seems to have put in as a way of showing off his stylish trademark. The film may be a bit esoteric, as it is aimed more at open-minded American audiences than it is at foreign audiences. It is not a satire on movies in the way a film such as “Kill Bill” was; rather, this film is a gruesome, lecturing beast that has a keen sense of tongue-in-cheek humor, but also wants us to take it more seriously than we usually take its type of film.
Many critics have claimed that it is a social commentary and a meditation on the male psyche, but those critics are taking the film far too literally as a sociology project. In the literal sense, “A History of Violence” is a straightforward and hugely entertaining thriller. In the moral sense, the message it sends is one that is actually half cynical and half positive. It says all men in America have an instinct of violence and destruction in them, no matter what social status or ethnic background they are from. Every man knows this, but none of them want to admit to it. However, there is an art form that does admit to this lurid instinct, that always has got at this aspect of men in our culture: the genre movie. If you can believe that, then you can believe that there is hope for our movies and maybe even our culture.
Bangor Daily News