Must-See DVD: A History of Violence

Starring:

Viggo Mortensen


Maria Bello


Ed Harris


William Hurt

This is another movie I'd wanted to see and didn't get a chance to. It had a limited release in theaters back in September 2005. It came on one of the movie channels last month and we recorded it.

Tom Stall (Mortensen) is the owner of a diner in small town Indiana. He's married to a local lawyer (Bello) and has two kids, a son and a daughter. One night, two robbers attempt to rob his diner and he thwarts the assault, thereby saving his customers. The town calls him a hero and the incident garners media coverage. Thanks to the coverage, his past shows up on his doorstep--a couple of times--and not only the local sheriff, but his wife, starts to wonder if Tom is really who he says he is.

Two words: Ho-ly. Shit.

The best part about this movie is the build-up. From the get-go, we're led to believe that this man has been living the small town life like he'd been born to it. He is known and liked by everyone and in turn knows everyone else. And then two men attempt to rob his diner--with the intent to kill everyone in it because they've done it before--and he handles himself in a way that no smalltown owner of a diner would know how to do.

When his past comes back to bite him in the ass and his identity is called into question, you're convinced that he's telling the truth. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm Tom Stall. I'm not this man you're looking for. You must have me confused with someone else," he says. I believed him. Hell, even his wife believed him, too. But then everything starts to unravel--with a quickness--and you start to think, "So, they're really not in the Witness Protection Program?"

The action scenes are so in-your-face, they leave you stunned...and saying those two words listed above. And the two very graphic love scenes are pretty intense, too. One is straight out of the romance books I read and the 2nd is more like an "Ow, that would really hurt my back."

As much as I enjoyed the LOTR trilogy and Hidalgo, I must say I was really diggin' Viggo in this movie.



Go. Check it out.




Review: 5 Snaps Up

Labels: Must-See DVD