Dir: David Cronenberg. Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes.
David Cronenberg's best known for films full of body horror, mutation and infection, the kind which revolve around normal human beings becoming something quite disturbing. But he's also more than able to pull of psychological thrillers (Spider), action flicks (Exisistenz) and even his worst film, M.Butterfly, is of interest for the ideas it explores. A History of Violence is his first incomplete film though. It poses a lot of questions, and ends way before it satisfactorily answers them. Some may say that this is a quality a lot of great art has. But the problem is that what the film does say and the questions it does pose seem simplistic, and are ideas that have been explored in greater depth many times before.
Can a man change? Can he transcend his past and not revert to what he once was? And what is the effect of violence upon the innocent? These may be of interest when considered carefully, but here the answers the film does give seem fairly obvious. In that they're a) yes, b) no, and c) it fucks them up and makes them violent too. Thus we see Viggo Mortensen's caring, sharing family man change back in to a cold hearted killer in the blink of an eye, his geeky son go from victim to offender, and his loving wife suddenly wish to indulge in sadistically violent sex. And despite it being filmed beautifully, and the performances being so damned superb, it just doesn't ring true.
Had A History Of Violence dared to explore further the questions it poses and relied less on beautiful cinematography and shocking bouts of violence, but rather upon a truly intelligent script, it could of been of great value. Instead it's only of vague interest, recommended to Cronenberg completists, but even then only wearily.
Alex Finch.
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