A history of violence

I don't need to see Viggo Mortensen eat out his wife to appreciate the story of an ex-mob hitman trying to have a normal life.

 

It's a good review if you care to excuse the lack of backstory on the characters. All of a sudden, he reports back to the brother and we're expected to know their history? They never filled in the missing pieces. We don't know why he really left and why he hid and changed his identity. We don't know what he really used to do and how he was able to escape and relocate. We don't know why he elected to turn on his family (first to leave, then to "emancipate" himself. The idea of Viggo playing two different characters seems a little absurd. He was both characters the entire film. I am not buying his switching back and forth because there was no trigger and he had no military training (or did he? they never said). He was always the man he used to be. He was trying to be someone else. That mobster was always there, but he just need to utilize those skills.

I agree that SOME of the violence was necessary to teach the boy and to demonstrate the abilities of this guy (who it takes you the length of the film to find out anything about him), but I didn't see the violence as necessary as an entire character.

I found plenty of holes in it, which is why I labelled the film stupid. I didn't say it wasn't entertaining, but I had lots of story problems with it and found the gratuity to be unwarranted and simply foir the sake of shock value. If it doesn't add to the story, it shouldn't be in the film. You can't just take a man to the ground without having to see a nose breaking or a splatter of blood pop from his face? I've seen plenty of people hit in the face, but not once have I seen a massive blood squirt and see a bone come popping out. It's near impossible and lacks realism. They did it to be cool. They failed, in my estimation.

Though I may disagree, I value your opinion.

 

For Maria Bello's character, her husband's violent streak became a turn on.

 

Hell yeah. He fucked the shit out of her on the wooden stairs.

That movie whipped butt.

 

Both my wife and I were pleasantly surprised with this flick. It was recommended to us by several people. Damn good movie.

 

i was hoping for a "normal" movie, not an exploration of violence. as a commercial film, it has a decent set up, but it kind of fizzles. the "is he or isn't he" question doesn't go very far and instead the movie ends up just being about him doing what he wants with little resistance. i found i didn't care much for either of mortenson's "characters" nor really anybody else in the film.