hit men.(A History of Violence)(Capote)(Movie Review)

Byline: John Powers

During the premiere screening of A History of Violence in Cannes this May, an Austrian critic began to berate the audience: "Stop laughing, you idiots," he shrieked. "Can't you take anything seriously?" There was only one problem: The scene was supposed to be funny. Still, you couldn't blame the poor fellow for getting confused. Based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, David Cronenberg's brilliant new movie is a deadpan nightmare-a sexy, spooky, wickedly comic study of our fascination with violence. Set in an idealized small town (no chain stores!), the movie stars Viggo Mortensen as Tom Stall, owner of the local diner, whose wife, Edie (Maria Bello), still fits into her cheerleader outfit and whose kids think of Dad as an ordinary Joe. But when an act of physical derring-do lands Tom on the national news, the Stall family finds itself menaced by big-city gangsters-played by gaudily scarred Ed Harris and droll William Hurt-who insist that Tom is not the hero he seems. One of the world's brainiest filmmakers, Cronenberg uses this situation to explore ...