A History of Violence

⭐4/10

I thought this one was really bad. I went in with an open mind and an open heart, so much so that during those early moments of utterly generic setup and corny dialogue, I was thinking, surely this is commentary on traditional Hollywood action cinema with intentionally cliche writing and over-dramatic delivery? 

It's not that. It's just not a good movie. In brief, this movie is about sweet Viggo Mortenson being confronted by some cartoon villains, but oddly enough kills them both with no issues and becomes a big hero. But how was this plain, quiet, mysterious diner-owner able to dispatch evil villains so easily? Is it possible he might have A History of Violence?? 

I can't necessarily fault the actors for the sins of this movie, because of course I could never fault the rightful King of Gondor, but I think they did their best with some truly terrible writing. Everything here is so lame. The high school bully has some of the most hilariously cliche lines, the hot wife is super horny for her macho husband, the geeky son says everything a geek should say, and Viggo is an over-the-top nice guy which kinda gives the game away. It's surely some weird male-fantasy stuff, and I'm all about movies that are unabashedly for the boys, but this one had all the bad stuff and little of the good stuff. I think it's a dumb action movie that wanted to be deeper than it is. It kinda feels like a movie written by someone who's never had a real interaction but has only ever watched other lame movies before. It also kinda just seemed like it was written by a horny teenager. 

I am pretty mystified by the reception to this movie. I honestly can't point to anything I think it did right. At first I thought the macro was okay, with some interesting, maybe even unique ideas, but was let down with poor execution. But by the end this is just as generic as you would have guessed from the start. And it also just makes no sense when you think about it too much. Even if Viggo has a sketchy past, why is he Jason Bourne? And what about his son??

It pains me to write this. I owe my loyalty to not only Viggo, but also Howard Shore who did the score, both of them coming fresh off of Lord of the Rings (for the record, the score is a big positive). It's also directed by fellow Canadian Cronenberg, and while I was hoping this would begin a long and fruitful relationship with that artist, I would say I now have zero interest in his other movies.