SYNOPSIS

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is living a happy and quiet life with his lawyer wife (Maria Bello) and their two children in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, but one night their idyllic existence is shattered when Tom foils a vicious attempted robbery in his diner. Sensing danger, he takes action and saves his customers and friends in the self-defense killings of two-sought-after criminals.

Heralded as a hero, Tom’s life is changed overnight, attracting a national media circus, which forces him into the spotlight. Uncomfortable with his newfound celebrity, Tom tries to return to the normalcy of his ordinary life only to be confronted by a mysterious and threatening man (Ed Harris) who arrives in town believing Tom is the man who’s wronged him in the past. As Tom and his family fight back against this case of mistaken identity and struggle to cope with their changed reality, they are forced to confront their relationships and the divisive issues which surface as a result.

Review by
TOM PRICE

A popular Victorian story described a wicked and ugly man who donned the mask of a saint to woo the woman of his dreams. After hiding his deceitful past for years, he is unmasked by one who knows the truth. But this unmasking only reveals that his once-scarred face had become the face of the saint he sought to be.

That is what we would like to believe about violence. If there is a willful renunciation of a history of violence accompanied by repentant behavior, the hope is that redemption will occur. But A History of Violence, a new film by Canadian director David Cronenberg, suggests that violence isn’t so easily purged from one’s past. And that the threads of a violent past may entangle us and those we love in unforeseen ways.

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortenson) operates a diner in the small, idyllic Indiana town of Millbrook (although the movie was actually filmed in Millbrook, Ontario). He is the church-going father of two children and has a loving relationship with his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), a former cheerleader turned attorney. But one day, two thugs enter the diner, intent on robbery and brutalizing the patrons. We have met them in the film’s opening scene, and we know that they have become so desensitized by violence that there perhaps is nothing they won’t do.

Sensing danger, Stall reacts instinctively, quickly disarming and killing the robbers in self-defense. He is hailed as a hero. But television coverage of his heroics brings to town Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris), a face-scarred, East Coast mobster, who insists that Stall is really Joey Cusack, a man with a history of violence. He and his henchman begin to stalk Stall and members of his family. His questions sow seeds of doubt within Edie Stall about her husband’s origin. Could her husband really be the Joey Cusack who disfigured Fogarty’s face with barbed wire? Whom does she trust? As Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.”

A History of Violence seems like a classic Hitchcock-like thriller about a case of mistaken identity. Mortenson, who began his film career as an Amish farmer in Witness and gave a highly nuanced portrayal of the hero Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings films, here takes on a more complex role. It’s difficult to tell whether his journey is that of the hero or anti-hero. His portrayal is believable as that of a “good man” with a haunted past. And the film’s suspense, as well as its tragedy, is underscored by plaintive French horns in the soundtrack by Howard Shore.

Violence has pursued Stall all his life. Despite his attempts to “kill” the man he was, Stall finds that the web of violent behavior still remains. It even begins to ensnare members of his family. After the attempted robbery, Stall’s teenage son reacts violently to relentless taunting by a bully, putting the offender and his henchman into the hospital. When Stall confronts his son about his violent behavior, he ends up striking his son.

The 96-minute thoughtful thriller is rated R for scenes of brutal violence, explicit sexuality and offensive language. Although the violent scenes are graphic, none seems gratuitous. Each follows logically from the plot. This powerful film demonstrates that violence begets violence and it draws others into its purveyance as co-conspirators. Although Tom Stall escapes a life-threatening situation with a violent response, even more violent forces continue to besiege him.

At one point, he laments, “What do I need to do to make peace?”

It is only with great cost that a cycle of violence in a family is broken. The question faced by Tom Stall is whether he is willing to sustain those costs.