Review of A History of Violence (2005) by Anna C — 13 Sep 2010

"William Hurt's short, but Oscar qualifying, ending scene caps off a perfect ending of thrills in the most unique Croneberg film to date." His 8 minutes of acting might have been short, but damn, he was able to powerfully execute with the right voice tone to go along with a smartly written script, just for him (Not to also mention the smartness of the entire film script).

What starts out as a simply-put atmospheric drama centered on a local family living in a small town in Indiana, aggressively (and violently) turns into a family-affected gangster flick. What is nice to see is that Croneberg let his characters adapt into whom they were before all the action started happening. Under this circumstance (as just a single example), the audience can then logically form the characters overall well-being of their humanoid traits (not for all circumstances. However, the cool thing about "Violence" is what you expect to happen based on these logical facts, turns into the complete opposite. Tom Stall is the most prime example: He starts out as a very caring family man, who manages a local restaurant that belongs under his name, and this keeps his family well taken care of. What then happens is Tom shows the dark, but savory side of himself to the audience. Finding out Tom Stall was a mobster with a surreal name of "Joey," takes the audience completely off-track and into the more thrilling/violent scenes of the Oscar nominated film. Films which often catches its audience off-guard and go into something completely different, for the better of it, have a high level of honorable admiration and universal acclaim. Feel proud Croneberg for your compelling masterpiece on the controversy surrounding violence in nature.

This film gives an in-dept and provocative look on the natural occurrences that exist in violent behavior. As a small town diner owner in Indiana, Tom Stall is not a man who sees a lot of thrilling action. All of that changes after a group of mobsters threaten his staffs' lives upon their arrival to the diner right before closing time. Stall kills the mobsters and saves his staff, resulting in him being the big time town hero. His heroic behavior only ends up threatening the life of his family after another set of mobsters come into investigate who Tom "really is, and why is he so good at killing people." This is a first-class thrill ride that is done by an exceptional director, David Croneberg, and is the best movie that came out in 2005.