A History of Violence (2005) Review

Wow. You sound like you really believe your own crap, don't you? You know, you're trying so hard to be this other guy. It's painful to watch.

Small-town America. Meatloaf, baseball, a diner. A secret.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for somebody turning their sword into a plowshare only to be forced to reforge the sword when their past runs back into them. Cronenberg slathers the eponymous violence on thick from start to finish, leading to a ridiculous third act that the ending can't reel-in.

But the film is smart to keep the action honed-in on the family at the center of the film, even as Ed Harris shows up to briefly steal the show. It's at its best as Mortenson tries feebly to duck the dangerous notoriety of his heroics, and the paranoia and broken trust that emerges between husband and wife, father and son as the buried past lurches up into their small town. As a two-hour film, this picture would almost certainly stall out. At 93 minutes, it's just right.