"Still . . . chasing . . . Orcs."

In A History of Violence, director David Cronenberg, who has a history of his own, explores some pretty heady issues: identity, trust, and yes, violence. Viggo Mortensen stars as Tom Stahl, mild-mannered husband, father and proprietor of a diner in a picture-perfect small midwestern town.  After he handily foils an armed robbery, the resulting media attention draws the nastily-scarred eye of mobster Ed Harris who is convinced that Tom is actually a former associate named Joey who, unfortunately, he didn’t like all that much.  

Who is Tom, really? Cronenberg and screenwriter Josh Olson take their time answering that question, leaving the audience to wonder along with Tom’s wife (Maria Bello) whether he’s been lying about his identity. And I suppose I shouldn’t spoil the answer for you, which takes some of the more interesting points of discussion off the table.

Mortensen does some brilliant work here, playing Tom as a gentle, friendly family man, but with a certain guardedness that makes it easy to wonder if there’s something else going on there. It’s a very internal performance that still makes everything clear by the end of the film. Bello is terrific as well, playing a woman whose world is spinning out of control. But William Hurt, coming in late in the film, seems like somebody dressed up as a gangster for Halloween. He’s all accent and goatee.

"So, are you a Jet? Are you a Jet all the way?"

Cronenberg works the theme of Tom’s potentially dual nature into the fabric of the film; at times it almost feels like two different movies, as the preternaturally idyllic small town vibe is shattered by shocking bursts of violence and what once was warm and welcoming becomes cold and mistrustful. The incident in the diner changes everything; its repercussions are felt in every moment of the rest of the film and touch every aspect of Tom’s life, altering, perhaps irrevocably, his relationships with his wife and son. In that sense, it doesn’t really matter who Tom was before; that moment of brutality – however justified – has changed things forever.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas