a history of violence
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 10:46 am
david cronenberg's new film does just about everything right.
the cast, with viggo aragorn, ed harris and william hurt, is splendid. the photography is beautiful and menacing. the music is not annoying, which nowadays is not to be taken for granted. there is an attention to detail that makes this film satisfying -- for instance, the mob staff car is a wonderfully evil, blinged chrysler 300c.
the story sounds conventional and unconvincing (a nice small-town family guy turns out to be a sympathetic ex-killer) but the more i thought about it, the more i found the plot to be psychologically consistent.
if there is an irritant, it is when violence is used for some nyuck-nyuck comic relief. when one person fails to kill another by garroting, the scene shouldn't end with a chuckle. that kind of stuff went out of style a few years after pulp fiction.
altogether however, i'd give this movie a four outta five.
the cast, with viggo aragorn, ed harris and william hurt, is splendid. the photography is beautiful and menacing. the music is not annoying, which nowadays is not to be taken for granted. there is an attention to detail that makes this film satisfying -- for instance, the mob staff car is a wonderfully evil, blinged chrysler 300c.
the story sounds conventional and unconvincing (a nice small-town family guy turns out to be a sympathetic ex-killer) but the more i thought about it, the more i found the plot to be psychologically consistent.
if there is an irritant, it is when violence is used for some nyuck-nyuck comic relief. when one person fails to kill another by garroting, the scene shouldn't end with a chuckle. that kind of stuff went out of style a few years after pulp fiction.
altogether however, i'd give this movie a four outta five.