A History of Violence

A masterpiece of indirection and pure visceral thrills, David Cronenberg’s latest mindblower, A HIStORY OF VIOLeNCe, is the feelgood, feel-bad movie of the year. The story of a seemingly average American family almost undone by cataclysmic violence, the film takes place in a surreal and mercilessly brutal land, Anytown, U.S.A., that has been repeatedly soaked in blood only to be repeatedly washed clean. The great kick of the movie – or rather, its great kick in the gut – comes from Cronenberg’s refusal to let us indulge in movie violence without paying a price. The man wants to make us suffer, exquisitely. The film, which hinges on an upstanding citizen and reluctant mystery man, Tom Stall (brilliantly played by Viggo Mortensen), takes it as an article of faith that we, the multiplex allegiant, have been long-reared on the ways and means, giddyups and brutalizing downs of the action movie. (Manohla Dargis, «New York Times», 2005)