As a word of mouth through friends and coworkers, I walked into the theater aware that many people didn’t like A History of Violence,” despite the positive reviews. They couldn’t be more wrong. 

Given the title, I assumed the audience expected to see a big action thriller. I heard this same argument about the “War of the Worlds,” this past summer. People expected to see a huge action film, with Tom Cruise single handedly destroying the aliens. Instead, we saw a family coming together and surviving the attacks rather than fighting them.

Referring to the stereotypical American life of the Stall family, Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is an upstanding citizen and a loving husband. His wife Edie (Maria Bello) is a practicing attorney, the son Jack (Ashton Holmes) is constantly bullied in school and Sara the daughter (Heidi Hayes) has nightmares about monsters

“A History of Violence,” fulfills the action and thriller genre but there’s something deeper. It’s merely a family drama that is more concerned about character and family development than violence.

As the story begins, two men with robbery and rape on their agenda, forcefully enter Tom’s diner. Tom quickly reacts by shooting them. He saves the day and is admired by his small Indiana town.

From the publicity of the shooting, Carl Fogarty an old acquaintance of Tom shows up at diner a few days later. Carl identifies Tom as Joey Cusack, he claims that Tom was a part of their mob from Philadelphia. Tom clearly denies ever being affiliated with the gang. This begins a chain of harassment by Carl and his henchmen against the Stall family.

The film emphasizes on the struggles of the Stall family and how they overcome the questionable identity of Tom. The final scene of the family at dinner is well crafted and choreographed. I felt like standing up and applauding. That’s the movie you should expect to see, nothing more, nothing less.