A History of Violence [2005]
Director: David Cronenberg
Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt
Tom Stall (Mortensen) is a humble and loving family man living in a small town in Indiana, happily married and running a small diner in the centre of town. He is a well respected and popular member of the small, close-knit community, and with two healthy kids and a beautiful wife seems to be living out the American Dream.
When one day two notorious murderers come knocking at the diner at closing time, dead set on robbing the place and leaving some cold bodies on the checkered floor, Tom is forced to take action. In a heroic display of violence he guns down the killers while himself sustaining only minor injuries. He is heralded as a hero, and seen as the man who decidedly and single-handedly stopped the robbery, saved the threatened people that were still in the diner, and rid the streets of two wanted killers.
Much to his irritation, his face is plastered all over the news, which attracts some unwanted attention. A mobster from the eastcoast by the name of Fogarty (Harris) comes calling with two goons, claiming Tom is someone else, someone they’ve been trying to track down for a long time. They insist and start harrassing him and his family.
What happens next is appaling and appealing at the same time, in that Cronenberg sort of way. I enjoyed this movie a lot, for it’s acting, directing and its gratuitous but purposeful violence.
