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October 21, 2005
A History of Aragorn's Butt
(Warning: Spoilers for A History of Violence and a little bit of risqueness, read at your own risk)
Not that I have anything against Viggo's butt, truly. However, like much of this movie its appearance is, well, abrupt. I may have lived too long in Tennessee or something. The two in-your-face sex scenes in this movie, although almost nothing worse than I see on Galactica, took me by surprise. And by the reactions of the other folks in the theatre, I wasn't the only one.
Viggo's politics are your typical lefty-pink rhetoric (Impeach Bush, blah blah blah) almost unworthy of a good savaging (and not very welcomed by most Vols either), but his acting has plainly gotten much better in the year since I saw Hidalgo and The Return of the King. Although movies with leading equines have a place in my heart, his acting in Hidalgo was pretty stilted and he left it to the horse to carry the movie.
He carried off A History of Violence with a stronger performance than any of the Fellowship of the Rings films, and appears to have found his stride. With both Hidalgo and A History of Violence under his belt, he may escape type-casting as the Ranger turned King of Gondor. The fact that all of the characters in A History turned in strong performances may also have buoyed his. The first scene in which the family (Viggo, mom, brother) consoles Tom Stall's daughter seems a little forced, however under Cronenberg's direction the dynamic develops into something appropriately dysfunctional (ie. realistic), quirky, but with a loyal and affectionate bond.
I don't remember theatre audiences being quite as expressive in Connecticut as they are here. I could hear audible gasps from mothers with their teenagers when Tom (Viggo) and Edie Stall (the sultry Maria Bello) slid into a classic 69. (And her in a cheerleader outfit no less!) Their second go-round, an almost-rape as mom finally gets the bad boy routine from her normally passive husband, is where Viggo's backside makes its larger-than-life appearance. I much preferred the full frontal of Bello, but I fear it is not what will be scalded into my cerebellum come bedtime.
Although no one walked out due to the heavy sex, the movie brought out huge grumbles with it's non-ending. In the South, we like meat and potatoes. We like barbecue, football, and beer. We don't, however, like our movies to make us think about what could have happened after the credits close. Although I think I interpreted Cronenberg's ending correctly, I don't think many others did (or just didn't want to), and you could hear it in the disappointed conversations as patrons left the auditorium. To most there, it was almost a perfect movie: strong violence with a generous helping of gore, erotic and unusual sex scenes between two strong actors, a bad-guy-gone-good backdrop, and a solid (again, if abrubt) climax had everyone on the edges of their seats. Then it had one of those artsy make-you-think endings in direct contrast to the straightforward tempo of the rest of the flick.
Overall, I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars; my main complaints tend to be related to minor flaws, such as the lawyer wife's lack of research into her husband's past after the first run-in with the mafia guys and the lack of a true law enforcement presence after Viggo goes Schwarzenegger on a bunch of known mobsters and leaves them dead on his front lawn. Still, I'd say the movie is a must see for its entertaining, straight-forward film-making and its sublime use of pom-poms.
Posted by TLorin at October 21, 2005 9:27 PM
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