Beautifully acted and staged, but I think it falls a bit short in terms of what it's trying to express. The opening scene is a classic, masterfully paced, with a Spaghetti Western feel. The first act of the film seems to be setting up some complex and fascinating questions about our relationship to violence and the nature of identity. But these themes are then largely abandoned, as the film becomes an extremely well-crafted and entertaining, but not particularly thought-provoking, gangsters and guns thriller. William Hurt I would go so far as to say was delightful, and I've honestly never liked him in anything before. Ed Harris is outstanding too. Garish product placement though: a certain box of Honey Bunches of Oats appears so often that it really should have been given some lines. Also poor Maria Bello displays her naughty bits in one of the more gratuitous nudie shots in the history of the cinema. Mr. Mortensen (good throughout, though not as outstanding as Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers) shows his bottom more appropriately...
Review of A History of Violence
