A History of Violence

I'm a nice family man. Don't piss me off. Don't make me go violent on your ass.

Viggo Mortenson stars as Tom Stall, a nice quiet peace loving family man. He has a lovely lawyer wife and two great kids. They live in a small town in Indiana where everybody knows everyone else's names.

One day, 2 cold blooded killers come in to Tom's diner and cause trouble. One thug grope's his waitresses breasts and points a gun to her head. Tom instinctively turns violent and kills them. He becomes a local hero and is on the news. Tom doesn't want the attention. He says anyone would have done the same thing if they were in the same situation.

Later, a mafia crimelord and his posse come to his diner and say, "Where've you been Joey?" Tom says he's not Joey and has never been to Philly. Tom starts getting paranoid when he sees the mafia's black car again the next day. The mafia guys show up once more and drive up to his house in an appropriate gangsta car, the Chrysler 300C. The mafia thugs kidnap his teenage son and tells Tom to get in the car. Tom goes into killer mode and kills the bodyguards, but he gets shot. Tom lies on the ground and is about to be killed by his old archenemy, the mafia boss with the jacked up eyeball, when his teenage boy suddenly shows up and shoots the badguy with a shotgun. Like father, like son.

Apparently, Tom really did have a hidden past. He used to be Joey Cusack, a former Hitman. His wife is really upset because he has never told her and feels like she's been living a lie all these years. His son is starting to disrespect his old man now too. (I really hate teenagers. That's why I don't want to have any bratty kids.)

Tom's wife slaps his face, and the old Joey starts coming out again. He rapes his wife on the staircase, but then it looks like she still had a happy ending. Later she walks by naked without saying a word, because she's still pissed at him. Then, his brother calls. He says, "Are you going to come and visit me or do I have to go visit you?" So, Tom/Joey goes to visit him. His brother is also a mafia crime boss living in a mansion. He kisses Joey and says why haven't you called me, bro? You've cost me a heck of a lot when you ripped the nasty mafia boss' eye out with barbed wire and ran off. You cost me a lot! Then, his brother tells his henchman to kill his own brother. Tom/Joey destroys them all and shoots his brother's brains out.

He goes back home during dinner time. His wife starts praying. Everyone is silent. Then, his little girl sets a dinner plate for him. Tom sits down. Fin.

I thought this was a very good psychological thriller. It makes you think about the cost and the effects of violence in a man and his family's life. The music was appropriately moody and tense. The acting was great. You can really see the stress that went on in the family.


I can't believe they just had sex on the stairway like that. What if the kids walked in on them. That would cause more trauma to the children than any violence they would ever witness!

Also, there was one moment of overacting by Tom's wife when she found out that Tom really was a Hitman before. She started throwing up right when she heard him confirm that. Would that happen? Maybe women really do get that upset.

I would be proud of what the son did to that high school bully. Reminds me of myself. When some @##hole kept picking on me, eventually I would crack and beat the $hit out of him. Which is exactly what the son did. I guess anger, violence, and fighting abilities are genetic. The kid looked like a wuss, but he can pack a wallop. That's my boy. You've got to watch out for lawsuits though.

The Highs: Great acting, very tense. A good in depth psychological study of violence and its effects on people.

The Lows: Hella boring beginning, especially the first scene where the bad guys talk in their car.

The Verdict: Don't get my daddy mad, or he'll take you out.

My rating: A, 91.