Review of A History of Violence (2005) by Ker Malkin G — 03 Jun 2013

This was a big surprise for me. I didn't anticipate that I would like this film as much as I did. It was a really good movie, and it is very underrated. I loved the intensity of the film, and it was crazy. It is a film that will just suddenly get really violent, and intense, but it will be over quickly. I liked that style that it had with the sudden violence a lot actually. The film also blends in drama, suspense, and mystery really well. This is really the only script that Josh Olson ever wrote that was any good, but he did a great job with this one. He was able to write a mystery film that you didn't figure out until you were told what the truth was. He also put in a lot of suspense, and you couldn't tell how it would end. The drama side was good to because they really showed how what happened to the guy really affected his family. It was overall really well done.

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) runs a local diner in an Indiana town. He has a family, and is very in love with his wife Edie (Maria Bello). One night his diner gets robbed, and he becomes a local hero when he kills the robbers, and saves the lives of the people in the store. He is all over TV, which make shim nervous, because he doesn't want that. One day a man named Carl Fogarty (Ed harris) came into the store and starts calling him "Joey" and starts to question him about the old days in Philadelphia. He accuses him of being a part of the mob many years ago. The film from that point becomes a mystery of weather or not he is the guy they tell him he is, or if he isn't. Once you learn weather he is or not it is about how he will get out of the situation he is in.

The film does a good job of making you wonder weather he is that guy that Carl Fogarty tells him he is, because there is foreshadowing of the violent side that he has, when he kills the robbers in his diner. Also his son has a violent edge in him to which he lets out on a bully. But they make him seem like such a peaceful man, and it surprised me when I saw him kill those two robbers, because it didn't seem like something he had in him. You could think either way about his identity, because they did a really good job developing that part of the story.

Overall I thought it was a really good movie. I really liked the plot, and I found it to be very entertaining. I think the reason why it got mixed reviews from users is because it was a little short, and certain parts of the film felt like they could have been developed more. That is the only flaw with the film. If it was about fifteen or twenty minutes longer I think the user rating would be even higher. Usually I think films are too long, but this film is too short. Other then the flaw in length it is perfect, and it is really well done.