The movie is part comedy, part thriller, and part meditation on the psycosis of American life. A movie that will sear your mind with it's brilliant look at people and the things they do to survive.
Director David Croonenberg says there were three layers to his movie: 1) the history of violence in the world, 2) the history of violence in men's lives, and 3) the Darwinian violence of survival. It is the third layer that he is most fascinated and the resulting work is both a dream and a cruel nightmare; the story of Tom (Viggo Mortensen) and Edie (Marie Bello) Stall is alternately domestic bliss and destructive chaos. The latter resulting from a mysterious might-have-been past of Tom's that was brought to light in a cruel act of self-defense. What starts out as life at it's most Rockwellian is brought down by a subversive wit, several illuminating performances, and one very psychotic story.
William Hurt, as the Philly mob boss Richie Cusack, sounds notes as an actor we have never heard. He does a deft dance of insane and hilarious, likeable and sad. The subplot here is focused on the children, Sarah and Jack (Ashton Holmes), who change throughtout the course and madness of the movie. Where once Jack turned the bully away with a sly remark he now pumells him into the ground on the basis of his father's brutality in the act of defense. His sister, Sarah, once thought that monster's weren't real (and if they were they were afraid of the light), now she knows the exist. Hell, they want to take her away in broad daylight.
The movie is made with a clean vision and a breath-taking darkness. The final scene is a wordless wonder: displaying all of the mis-trust, anger, depression, horror, and ultimately forgiveness that was wrought as a result of one man's desperation to live and to love.
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