The title is History of Violence so I was prepared to watch violence. Instead of that it was a story about family value: love, acceptance and forgiveness. I didn't sign for that, but why not after all. Family is great, let's all be happy in a sweet American town where everyone takes care of each other. One good point : nice scene of fight.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is a phenomenal film. It's a groundbreaking, mindblowing, entertaining action film which has been made so well that it's hard not to like it, especially being a fan of the genre.It's unlike usual action films. The treatment itself says it. All the action scenes are brilliantly executed. The film's tone keeps changing from dramatic to thrilling from time to time. I just can't sum up how artistic this film is. Viggo Mortensen is one of the best things about the film. His performance is energetic, and he shows a lot of excellence throughout the entire film. All other actors too deliver fine performances.Technically too, the film's quite good. I am really impressed with the director's ability to build up the required tension throughout the film within a perfect duration.If you want to see an action film with a lot of depth in the plot, then A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is really worth a watch. There are a lot of sequences which make you breathless, while it's the climax which makes you even more breathless.

A History of Violence is truly an excellent film. There is plenty to like about this dramatic movie. The cinematography is great. The acting from everyone whether it's from a main character or minor character is excellent. Viggo Mortensen indeed has an outstanding performance playing this character with a double life. He does a great job showing change within his character.The story is also an interesting one. The characters are well developed and written. It is unpredictable and you never know what will happen next in the story. The ending is full of good symbolism. I absolutely love the title of this film, at first you may think the title has nothing to do with the movie but then you start to see why it's such a fitting title.The movie doesn't have a lot of action but it doesn't need a lot of action and when it does it's well done. There are some nice fighting moves you may pick up from this movie.The movie needs some more interesting dialogue but other than that, this is a well done movie. This movie exceeded my expectations and deserves a lot more praise. This is one of the best thrillers I've seen in a while. You definitely need to check it out. 8/10 (Good)

...sums it up for me. I didn't have a great deal of expectation as I got to see this movie for free on Amazon Prime -missed it when it was first out. The film is 12 years old but it's bad now and for it's time -as much as movies have changed and audiences have gotten smarter -it doesn't matter a well done movie is a well done movie period from any time and this isn't! I agree with all the previous reviews in why the movie is lacking: underdeveloped story and characters - ridiculous action scenes that lack suspense, surprise and might as well be in slow motion -sex scenes and full frontal nudity that are completely out of place and no real history to the characters beside Toms'(Viggo Mortensen) "history of violence" which isn't ever really fully explained -he screwed with bad people in his shady past- I don't care enough about the character to care! I'd be more interested in how he came to this small town and chose to stay, how he met his wife and how they fell in love and the changes that happen to him as he becomes a husband, a father and a better person. All of that is just assumed in a sophomoric connect the dots kind of way as should be expected based on a graphic novel -there is a deeper, fuller, much better story here that's never realized -it's too bad cause David Cronenberg has done much better work (check out The Dead Zone) - (*spoiler alert*) the whole killing off of the 3 bad guys (including Ed Harris' character) and how that is swept under the rug -where is the town reaction, news etc. -after such a big deal was made about Tom being a hero??? someone already in the spotlight would have even more attention on them just days later after a triple murder on their property??? I feel like this movie should have been much longer and should have taken at least 30-40 minutes or more to establish itself and Tom's life in small town (Millbrook, Indiana) America -before the bad guys show up (Think of the movie Witness and why we care about the characters...) And yes the movie has violence and to me it doesn't matter or work for the film - like Quentin Tarantino's movies are often violent but because they are so well done and you care about the characters the violence is a working part of the story and doesn't degrade it. This movie lacks everything: story, real characters and even violence that matters or works!!