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David Cronenberg’s A
History of Violence is a mix of thriller and family drama,
TAKE a small town in Indiana, United States, where everyone knows everyone else. The sheriff is friendly and accessible. So are the townsfolk. Tom Small (Viggo Mortensen) runs a diner and his wife Edie (Maria Bello) is a lawyer. They have two children, the boy a teenager with the usual growing up problems, but nothing to shake the peace and tranquility of the family or the town. Then, get two strangers to enter as they are looking for a "hardened killer" and this throws the family and the town in total turmoil in David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, which may sound like a documentary but is not. It is an amalgam of thriller, family drama and modern-day Western and shows Cronenberg in his element, spawning suspense, shock and Sam Peckinpah-style violence as few others can. To begin with, the two strangers show their expertise in snuffing out a few lives. The quiet, peaceful Tom suddenly erupts like a volcano and the two strangers are eliminated in a blink of an eye. Then you have three more strangers visiting the diner on the same mission. One of them, with a scar on his face (Ed Harris), asks for coffee. But he says much more addressing Tom as Joey and all Tom’s denials don’t hold much water. By now doubts are being raised about the identity of the diner-owner. Is he Tom Small, a very convenient name, or Joey Cussack? Earlier, the couple, that is Tom and Edie, spends a night at a motel. "We’ve never got to be teenagers together, I’m going to fix that," Edie tells Tom as she dons the colours of a cheerleader. They make love. That there is ambiguity over Tom’s past is now apparent. The normally cool sheriff too is disconcerted with the new developments, which finally get to Edie who defends Tom in front of the strangers but bursts out in anger against her husband. What’s the next step, you wonder? But Cronenberg, whose last film released here was Fly, has his audience in a vice-like grip by then. Tom then drives the next night to Philadelphia. Is the past catching up with him? By now his son has already had a brush with the school bully and later his dad. Step by step, Cronenberg peels layer after layer of the proverbial onion. There are also the right pauses and silence to enhance the suspense and events build up to a stunning climax. Stunning yet controlled. Viggo Mortensen is brilliant in the lead role and even though he dominates the proceedings, one doesn’t at any time get tired of him or his doings. He is always in command. Ed Harris as the man with the scar is also excellent while William Hurt, hiding behind shrubbery, is not far behind. Maria Bello, a cross between a young Faye Dunaway and Kathleen Turner, has the talent to make it big in Hollywood and she surely seizes this opportunity. The performers no doubt enhance the film but most of the credit goes to Cronenberg for his deft handling of the subject. It could scarcely have been bettered. |
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