A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

What a piece of crap. Okay, so it's not the worst piece of crap I've seen, but a piece of crap, nonetheless. What was so frustrating about this is that it had such potential. It was a truly interesting story, and in the hands of an even mildly competent director, it may have been something, but my....god.

Whatever could have prompted New Line to give something like this to the likes of Cronenberg? The directing was absolutely abysmal. The melodrama..... Good God. If it had gone on any longer I may have tossed my cookies.

The man had an "A" list cast, capable of perfection, and he couldn't get a decent performance out of any of them. Ed Harris, maaaaaaybeeee.

The script was disjointed, for goodness sake, it's only an hour and a half movie and I looked at my watch at least three times. I swear, I do not know what all the hub bub was about with this film. Good Lord. Sideways was better. And that's not saying a heck of a lot.

The sad part about it is, that it had a message to impart. And in the hands of a good director, it could have been great. But Cronenberg???????

Of course, it took this long for me to see it because I just kept hearing how graphic and horrendous the violence was. Not even! Why? Because for violence to be really brutal to a viewer, the viewer has to care!!!!! First of all, it wasn't that the violence was so graphic -- several very graphic shots, yes -- but not as a whole. It was that both the violence and the sex was totally gratuitous. i.e.: it lent nothing to the storyline. It was simply Cronenberg's way of getting his ro**s off.

Furthermore, the violence wasn't even that graphic, except for those few shots. Not that I'm a big fan of graphic violence, but Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction make this look like a Disney movie -- oh, and did I mention why? BECAUSE WE CARED! Because Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction were fully developed, well-scripted, well-acted, and supurbly directed films. Nobody cares if you're spending most of the time during the film saying to yourself, "And we're going where now?"

A real shame this film. It could have been so good. The story was good. But it's just another one to put on the list of directors who have butchered good stories.

I do not recommend wasting money on this film. On HBO, sure, but don't waste your money.

Caat