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A History of Violence

2005

David Cronenberg

Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris ...

7.1

59,285

Thriller. Drama Based on the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, "A History of Violence" stars Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, a pillar of a small town community who runs a diner and lives a happy and quiet life with his wife (Maria Bello) and two children. But their lives are forever changed when Stall thwarts an attempted robbery and is lauded as a hero by the media, attracting the attention of some mobsters (William Hurt and Ed Harris) who believe he is someone else. [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"A masterpiece of indirection and pure visceral thrills"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Other films this year will have to sweat bullets to match the explosive power and subversive wit of David Cronenberg’s 'A History of Violence' (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"[A] masterpiece, an art film deftly masquerading as a thriller"	POS
United States	Todd McCarthy Variety	"A surprisingly conventional film from the normally more adventurously mind-bending David Cronenberg (...) Lack of depth, complexity or strangeness make this a relatively routine entry for the director"	NEU
United Kingdom	Matthew Leyland BBC	"This may look like a mainstream gig for Cronenberg, but it's his most challenging - and enjoyable - work in years (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"The strength of the movie lies in its psychological complexity and depth (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jeremiah Kipp Slant	"Based on a graphic novel, this material is treated like the one-dimensional juvenilia of ham-fisted comic books (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"It is a rather gripping and stylish film, a kind of black serio-comedy (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS

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