Post Thirty-Nine: A History of Violence

Watched A History of Violence last night. The first half was great, but I think it would have been superb had several things been done differently. Spoilers will abound in this post, so you've been warned:

1. So the two high school jerk-offs confront the son after his dad kills the psychos in the diner, and all of a sudden the son is Superman? As much as I can sympathize with the kid, I would have had the shit beat out of him by the two assholes. Would have made for a better commentary on people's being suckered into the unrealistic spin the media put on people ("heroes") who get extraordinarily lucky in such situations.

2. Cronenberg was on to something with the husband's paranoia about the mob guys going to his house, but this was simply abandoned in favor of a showdown. That should have been played out a bit longer, as well as further doubts on the wife's part about who exactly her husband was. The scene on the stairs would still work, perhaps even better, if she didn't know for sure who he was.

3. This leads me to the ending. Just make the yard scene the ending of the movie, with the audience being let in on the fact that he is Joey Cusack with the line "I should have killed you in Philadelphia," followed by the son's cutting the dude in half with the shotgun. The hug between the father and son (with that look in Viggo's eyes, which he just nailed) would have been a more impressive ending, in my opinion.

A really good movie, nonetheless. My biggest gripe(s) are just that it devolves into some sort of Raw Deal (which I actually love for what it is) in the last hour, when it could have been so much more.