*** Spoilers included!***
"A history of violence" is a movie that could have been something. It is one of those movies where the word "if" has a special meaning when thinking about what you have seen. The story is quite simple. "Man lives in a small place and is the ideal husband. Man kills two men trying to rob his café. Man is contacted by gangsters who claims that he is a violent criminal running away from his past. Man turns out to be a violent person and goes on a killing rampage. Man goes back to his family." Well, if you ask me this sounds like a rather clichéd story. And that is the trouble with this movie. It is a history of clichés hidden beneath scenes of graphic violence and some poor sex scenes. (The people who cry out about the sex scenes in this movie should see "Baise-moi" and "Irreversible" to see how sex can be used with a purpose in a movie. In "A history of violence" the sex-scenes seems awkward and without a real point.)
You will not waste your time if you see this movie, but neither will you remember it in one years time. It is the little things that prevents this movie from reaching the top. The scenes where Cronenberg could have made a difference, but where it ends up with something predictable.In short it is a craftsman's movie and well made from a technical point of view, but it is not the movie of an artist.
"A history of violence" is a movie that could have been something. It is one of those movies where the word "if" has a special meaning when thinking about what you have seen. The story is quite simple. "Man lives in a small place and is the ideal husband. Man kills two men trying to rob his café. Man is contacted by gangsters who claims that he is a violent criminal running away from his past. Man turns out to be a violent person and goes on a killing rampage. Man goes back to his family." Well, if you ask me this sounds like a rather clichéd story. And that is the trouble with this movie. It is a history of clichés hidden beneath scenes of graphic violence and some poor sex scenes. (The people who cry out about the sex scenes in this movie should see "Baise-moi" and "Irreversible" to see how sex can be used with a purpose in a movie. In "A history of violence" the sex-scenes seems awkward and without a real point.)
You will not waste your time if you see this movie, but neither will you remember it in one years time. It is the little things that prevents this movie from reaching the top. The scenes where Cronenberg could have made a difference, but where it ends up with something predictable.In short it is a craftsman's movie and well made from a technical point of view, but it is not the movie of an artist.