Movie review: A History of Violence (2005)

I decided to try whittling down my movie backlog with one every Sunday afternoon. No order, I'll let my mood decide, and I wanted something tense and dark today. Boy, let me tell you my intuition is in working order; finally some good fucking moving picture!

It starts with a small trick I rather liked: how we're (or at least I was) tricked into thinking the guys in the long initial scene are the main characters.

The following 15 minutes of slow and simple small town life are a textbook example of quality cinema: where such a scene could have easily ended up boring and/or too long, raw talent made it smooth like butter. The background music, cinematography, actors, the way the small talk is written… every small detail contributes in that kind of mundane introduction. Reminds me strongly of First Blood in this regard.

Then the ever-rising tension and violence cycle arrives. But so tastefully done! Never grotesque or gratuitous as one might fear from an Hollywood movie. It's just the proper note to punctuate said tension, providing the crucial rhythm that makes it work so well.

A lot could be said about other facets, like the small fragments showing that our "new man" never truly exorcised violence from his body, or how expertly the strain in his relationship with his wife is portrayed, but I think this is a Taxi Driver, atmosphere kind of movie, where focusing on such details ranges from pointless to stupid.

As I said, a lot of this rest on the actors. They're very, very good. Viggo plays the volatile killer genuinely trying to escape his past and nature to perfection, his wife has lifelike reactions to the mess she's in… hell, even the two menaces from the beginning are played al dente!

There's only one reason it doesn't get the elusive 10 from me. I said the violence was never grotesque, yes, but there's still a too "spectacular" touch to it (the fast close-ups, the loud body breaking sounds, mostly) that clashes strongly with its overall "highbrow" tone. Maybe it comes from Hollywood, or the (perhaps trashy) comics source, who knows? But it certainly doesn't mix well.