A History of Violence

Viggo “Aragorn” Mortenson takes centre stage as small restaurant owner Tom Stall, hailed a local hero after killing two hoodlums intent on making a bit of extra cash by robbing his diner. As the inevitable media interest in his heroic acts dies down, Tom and his wife Edie are paid a visit by mobster Carl Fogarty, played by the ever-intense Ed Harris who seems convinced that Tom is not at all who his family (or we) think he is. The subsequent revelations threaten to destroy Tom and the idyllic American life he has built.

Despite the title, the film isn’t as gore-laden as you might expect; in fact Cronenberg deals with the violence in a tasteful, almost disinterested fashion as he prefers instead to explore the effect that the realisation of Tom’s past has on his family. It could be seen that the film is a rather cautionary tale telling its viewers that the only way to deal with a problem is to confront it directly but that would be to completely understate the films intentions. We see shades of Tom’s temperament emerge in his son, Jack, when he puts an oppressive classmate in hospital; we see a gradual loss of innocence in Tom’s young daughter, Sarah, as she is forced to witness the disintegration of her family and we see Tom’s wife torn apart with the realisation that the man, and the life, she has loved for so long is a lie.

Mortenson’s portrayal of a man backed into a corner with only one way out is fitting as he descends from loving family man into your typical last man standing, gritty and rugged with so much jaw clenching it’ll take the enamel off your teeth. Bello’s performance is suitably harrowing, while Harris brings his customary gravitas to the proceedings. All in all this is a damn fine movie experience, which deserves all the accolades it has received in the press. A History of Violence makes us think about our relationships in a whole new way and question how much we really know about the people closest to us.

Thomas Reed