I hate to give the plot away and, in case you haven’t seen the film, I’m not going to. It’s a revenge / vengeance drama which to me resembles most closely Eastwood’s retired gunslinger epic, ‘Unforgiven’. In fact there are so many references to other films in here that I won’t pretend I can keep up with them. Check out the internet for numerous - and some very amusing - comparisons.

The film also makes a quite explicit attack on the mythologizing which pervades the United States’ relationship with it’s own history. Maybe that’s particularly relevant at the moment, but the saccharine of Disneyland in the midst of trailer parks, guns and minimum wage has been around for a long time. And when you see the current Commander in Chief ambling around in his favourite toy soldier garb, Cronenberg’s wry comment is refreshing. Make no mistake, there is some serious thought here.

There are also typical Cronenberg touches. The violence itself is unflinching. Faces cave in and flesh ripped apart quivers in close detail - there is definitely no CGI at work. A four year old girl is shot in the face in the opening scene. And the sex, while infrequent, is raw, realistic and emotionally powerful.

At the centre of the film are two truly impressive performances. Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) as a protagonist is a wonderful exercise in dualism, caught between two lives and struggling to control the mayhem all around. And Maria Bello is terrific as his lawyer wife Edie, watching their Norman Rockwell existence erupting into bloodshed when a hidden past returns to haunt him. Stall has been living the life of quiet family man, bringing up two kids while running the local diner and worshipping Edie. All that begins to alter when violence crashes into their lives courtesy of two truly terrifying homicidal drifters. Everything changes. The security of their smalltown ideal is suddenly torn apart, and in one excellent, lingering single shot Mortensen slowly morphs from blood spattered killer to loving father, helped immensely by the ragged glory etched into his face.

Ed Harris gives a good performance as cartoon gang boss Carl Fogerty - convinced that Stall is really killer Joey Cusack - but this along with a climactic sequence in a Philadelphia mansion feel like the films weakest points. Perhaps it’s because they show the scripts comic book roots so clearly when the rest of the film feels so adult.

Of course, the real core of this is the question of Stall’s true identity. Simple family man or semi-psychotic killer Joey Cusack? Or a bit of both? And the question reverberates throughout in a lot of different ways. Maybe Edie needs the dark side of Tom, and if the somnambulist fantasy of small town Millbrook never really existed, is it something you would want to create? Helped by a muted colour scheme, at times it feels like a permanent autumn hangs over the lives of the Stall family in their Midwest ideal.

If you like Cronenberg’s previous work. See it. If not? Please see it anyway. This is a flawed, marvellous film which deserves to be appreciated by as many people as possible. And I hope that he continues to create art which doesn’t take the easy route and instead poses serious challenges and questions. For a long time to come.

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Stuart Blackwood is 30 (odd), was born in Newarthill and lives in Glasgow. He supports Motherwell FC, has an MA in Economics and Philosophy and likes William Bell (the singer), Bukowski & Fante, Eric Arthur Blair, Negativeland, Eric Hobsbawm, politics, philosophy and ambiguity. He dislikes Alan Bloom and Francis Fukuyama, U2, categorization and Violence.

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© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.

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