This movie left me shaken on so many levels. This is the first Cronenberg movie I have actually liked and while his other films were disturbing (Videodrome, for example), to me they were off the wall. This film, however, real and brutally honest.
My one qualm was that Stalls' family was too perfect. All three people come in to comfort the little girl? However, that aside, the characters were real and you can feel for them, especially for Stalls, who has tried so hard to erase his past. However, the movie says it's not possible to erase your past which seems to come back and bite you. Or for most people, anyway. The brilliance of Mortenson's performance is that you can see in his expression that just under the surface is a brute killer and then a few seconds later his "better" side comes to the fore.
The scene where he attacks his wife first and then has brutal sex with her was truly terrifying to me. My first reaction was that he raped her and I still think part of that was true. She was actually trying to get away from him when he dragged her and then pulled her clothes to have sex with her and she then acquiesced. Is Cronenberg suggesting that women like violent sex or that sex is violent? That scene really frightened me, almost more than the other violent scenes.
And is violence genetic or just beneath the surface of us all as when he son brutally assaults his bullying schoolmate after taking his insults far too long? And lastly, what sickened me was the apathy of the students watching the bullying and then watching the attack without interfering or calling the authorities.
This film stuck (and still sticks with me) like glue and I'm still wrapping my head around it to sort it all out. I'm not sure whether I like myself for feeling sorry for Tom and hoping his family takes him back.
But then is there hope for redemption for those who commit violent crimes? Wow!
My one qualm was that Stalls' family was too perfect. All three people come in to comfort the little girl? However, that aside, the characters were real and you can feel for them, especially for Stalls, who has tried so hard to erase his past. However, the movie says it's not possible to erase your past which seems to come back and bite you. Or for most people, anyway. The brilliance of Mortenson's performance is that you can see in his expression that just under the surface is a brute killer and then a few seconds later his "better" side comes to the fore.
The scene where he attacks his wife first and then has brutal sex with her was truly terrifying to me. My first reaction was that he raped her and I still think part of that was true. She was actually trying to get away from him when he dragged her and then pulled her clothes to have sex with her and she then acquiesced. Is Cronenberg suggesting that women like violent sex or that sex is violent? That scene really frightened me, almost more than the other violent scenes.
And is violence genetic or just beneath the surface of us all as when he son brutally assaults his bullying schoolmate after taking his insults far too long? And lastly, what sickened me was the apathy of the students watching the bullying and then watching the attack without interfering or calling the authorities.
This film stuck (and still sticks with me) like glue and I'm still wrapping my head around it to sort it all out. I'm not sure whether I like myself for feeling sorry for Tom and hoping his family takes him back.
But then is there hope for redemption for those who commit violent crimes? Wow!