A History of Violence

Watched David Cronenberg's A History of Violence last night. Kicks the crap out of Crash, and probably all the other films that were considered "Oscar worthy" for 2005. (I saw "probably" because I have not, as yet, seen the others.)

I like Cronenberg films. There is always something unsettling about them, and I don't just mean their subject matter. It's the way he does thing, how he films. All of his films are very straight-forward, or so it seems. When there's violence it always has a sense of here-and-now-real, with little pretense and not a hint of glory.

And that's true here. I remember reading that this is a difficult film to review, and now a difficult one to write about, because to really discuss the film you have to give everything away. Which would be wrong because even though you may assume what the truth is, that's only a part of the story. In short, the film doesn't rely on that mystery and that's why it's really, really good, if not great.

All performances are more than good enough, even Viggo who I normally just see and think "Zzzzz." The stand-out is Maria Bello as his wife. The things she has to go through and the transformations of her character...yeesh. She carries it all off very well; shame that the Academy didn't think so.

The plot of the film is simple: What if a person you thought you knew really well wasn't the person you thought he was? The answer isn't crucial to how Cronenberg's play the drama. It's how people react to the possibility, how things slowly begin to unravel, then accelerate.

Highly recommended, not necessarily for the faint of heart. Cronenberg is reputedly anti-violence but violence is at the core of this film. The never blinks or turns away from what people are capable of doing to each other, but the real violence in this film isn't physical, and that's what makes it a winner.