A History of Violence

Tom Stall is a family man, a small-business owner and a pillar of the community in a small American town. The idyll comes to an end when two gangsters turn up and try to rob him in his diner. Although he manages, in a heroic act, to neutralise the pair, he becomes a local celebrity – and attracts more men in dark suits and sunglasses, concealing facial scars. How fragile is the façade of Tom’s middle-class existence? What traces does violence leave on bodies and relationships? And is it possible to break this spiral? Whilst Viggo Mortensen reveals the shifts in his character through minimal gestures, Cronenberg’s cool direction makes the eruptions seem all the more intense.
(Florian Widegger)