Change-up: HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

I really was planning on hitting the Brattle for LA VENGEANCE D'UNE FEMME tonight, but my friend, Nurse Jen, managed to shanghai me for a lively screening of HISTORY OF VIOLENCE at the Capitol in Arlington. Yeah, she really had to twist my arm...

I've wanted to see HISTORY since it opened. I've dug most of Cronenberg's work since I saw SCANNERS when I was a kid. Exploding heads! What's not to like? On top of that, it's a very smart movie about the rise of mutants in the human population, and done 20 years before the big screen X-MEN craze.

The prescription of a new drug to pregnant mothers-to-be in the 50s and 60s results in a percent of their offspring developing telepathic, telekinetic, and pyrokinetic abilities. I think the drug was a painkiller? I can't remember exactly. Although, I DO remember the name, Ephemerol. Y'know, I don't remember most of real and actual Chemistry and Physics from school, but I remember frickin "Ephemerol"... stupid brain. Anyhow, as adults, some of these so-called "Scanners" learn to use their talents for research and the pursuit of enlightenment. Others, who don't understand their powers, are driven mad by the uncontrollable invasion of their minds by others' thoughts. Still others train themselves to use their powers to manipulate, control, and even assassinate non-Scanners. Revok, one of the most powerful Scanners, sees himself and his brethren as a next step in human evolution, superior to normal men and women, and as such, deserving of mastery over them. The scientist who originally developed the Ephemerol that produced this generation of Scanners recruits a small group of them to challenge Revok's plans for world domination. He's just located a Scanner who could potentially rival Revok in raw talent and power. The problem is Revok's found him as well...

Sounds pretty freakin good, don't it? That's cuz it is, oh yeah! See it if you haven't, but please forgive any bit of special effects that doesn't hold its own against X-MEN or DOOM. You'll be looking at early 80s sci-fi horror.

Y'know, I'll bet Cronenberg would do an amazing job with the right superhero franchise. I wonder if he's on the short list for director of any upcoming Marvel or DC hero movie adaptations?

SCANNERS was my first introduction to Michael Ironside, who played Revok, the Magneto of the Scanner underworld. No small thing for a future fan of V: THE FINAL BATTLE, heh. Hrmmm... Has there been a sci-fi movie yet that's pit Michael Ironside against Lance Henricksen? That would be like a B-movie HEAT, y'know?

SCANNERS was also my first contemporary encounter with Patrick McGoohan, as the scientist creator of Ephemerol. Until then I only knew McGoohan as the wily and mod-ly dashing Number Six, forever escaping The Island of THE PRISONER. He was super-coolness. Okay, let's flash-forward twenty-some years and get back to where we started...

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. A solid and original little story. I didn't know it was based on a graphic novel until I was sitting in the theater and the opening "based on" credit blipped by. I can totally imagine this being a great graphic novel read. I'm definitely looking it up next time I hit New England Comics. On screen tonight, though, I hafta say it was a bit slow. The things is, that notion may have been amplified by the zoo animals with whom Nurse Jen and I shared the theater.

I can't say it was unexpected, really. Friday night at the movies in Arlington, you have to know you'll get a mix of high school kids, empty nest couples, and sewing circles, along with a collection of frugal young hipsters, and of course, that quiet guy, y'know? Keeps mostly to himself? That guy. Well, tonight's particular mix included some extra giggly teens, several of that hard-of-hearing guy, asking his spouse "What?" every five minutes to have her repeat the last line of dialogue, one fellow who doesn't seem to have an indoor voice, much less a whisper, and a whole herd of idiots who don't know how to kill the Bach and Beethoven ringers on their cell phones. Oh, also, one woman off to our right who kept flipping open her brightly backlit phone, presumably to check the time. I can tell you what time it is, lady... It's one frickin minute after the last time you checked! Grah!

In general there was a LOT of chatter and movement among the crowd. Unless someone is actually holding a conversation on his/her cell phone while a movie is playing, I can usually let stuff slide, sure, sometimes with a not-so-under-my-breath, "Putz," or, "Toolbox," but that can't be helped, right? This bunch was ridiculous. There were two shows in that one room, the movie on the screen, and the ADD menagerie in the seats.

So, it may be that my impression of the movie's pace as slow is dilated by the exasperating spazzy behavior of the audience. Allright, forget about the pace issue, and I hafta say that Viggo and Ed Harris are excellent in their roles. Viggo as Tom Stall, the victim of mistaken identity, and Harris as, Fogarty , the evil, creepy, mob killer who's got it in for him, or at least, the him he believes he is. One night, when Tom Stall is closing up his Main Street diner in a quiet Indiana berg, two Bad men come in for some coffee and pie. When they draw weapons and threaten to kill Stall's staff and customers, Tom turns the tables on them in an incredible adrenline-fueled act of self-defense and protection. His celebrity as a local hero gets him noticed by some dangerous men who believe they recognize him as one of their own, long gone missing. Fogarty is sent to bring him back into the fold. Wacky fun ensues!

Oh, William Hurt, as Fogarty's boss, Cusack, is quirkily brilliant in the short bit of time he has on screen.

I've gotta say, coming off of yesterday's early morning recap of the Brattle samurai series, this movie does seem a bit like an updated model of a kind of samurai flick, or maybe more of a western, given the small Indiana town setting.

Maria Bello makes a fine Mrs. Stall, a wife, mother, and partner you want to protect. I know, I know, that's all fine and good, but you've got another, much more important question on your mind, right? Well, the answer is yes. Yes, she DOES get naked in this movie, too... again... once more. I'm sure it's gotta be some kind of plus for a film to get an actress who's comfortable in the buff, but I can't help but think that extra asterisked line in the resume of an actress is there to shore up a substandard commitment to acting, y'know? The thing is, in this case, Bello is a pretty sharp actress. She's no Amanda Peet, who often seems to go starkers INSTEAD of acting.

I suppose it's the R rating at work, aligned with marketing and buzz. If your film lands definitively in R territory based on content like violence, horror, language, or drug use, you might as well hit all the R cylinders and throw in some skin. At least there's something here for the girls, too. Oh, did you not hear? That's right, ladies, you get some primo Mortensen bumcake in this picture. Viggo's bare bottom, donchaknow. Aragorn's backside. If you can stand the violence, seeing chunks of flesh blown away by gunfire, this really is an equal opportunity date movie treat! =)

Stall's son Jack has a little story of his own moving in parallel with his pop's. He's navigating the hellhole of high school as the classic scrawny smart kid, harrassed relentlessly by the jock king. He does his best to keep his head down and defuse confrontations with some quick thinking and fast talking. Scenes from his THREE O'CLOCK HIGH trials do a good job of cutting the intensity of the Tom-v-mobsters situation with angsty teenage scenarios.

*** SPOILERISH NOTE - Skip this paragraph if you don't want to read a hint of a spoiler! *** There's also a damn satisfying bit of cathartic action in the high school story. Damn satisfying!

Watch yourself when you watch this movie. Try to figure out what you're feeling and why when violence erupts on the screen. Listen to your reaction and those of others around you. If this was set in some other time, dressed up in the bits of a genre film, a western or Chicago gangland, it might not matter so much. But from one act to the next in this movie, the violence is blended for different flavors, and it's... interesting... to note what gets your blood pumping and what turns your stomach.

Speakin of stomach, it's pushing on past 2 and a half now. I should get some Z's soon as I've gotta be up in time to meet peeps for some early brunching in Chinatown. In the afternoon I'll hit one of the Doillon films at the Brattle. I may not get around to a write-up of it for a while, though, as my Saturday evening will be spent at my friend Keri's "Martini Madness" cocktail party. Gotta remember to print out and pocket a pledge form before I head over there, heh. Don't drink and pledge $5-a-movie with brian doing the watching!

Thanks to everyone who has donated to the Brattle Film Foundation so far! And special thanks to Charles Laquidara, Joshua, and Kim for working their connections to spread the good Brattle word!

Keep on keepin on~