A History of Violence Acting in films is what makes or breaks the movie. If there is an actor who is just not believable in a film, in my opinion it kind of ruins the film. In the film, A History of Violence, I found there to be particularly good acting and some acting that was just okay. A History of Violence is an action packed film with unexpected scenarios. A mild-mannered man by the name of Tom Stall unexpectedly becomes the hero of a small town when a pair of criminals attempt to rob his diner. Tom Stall responds very quickly to their attempt and easily protects himself and those in his diner. Shortly after his heroic actions a strange man by the name of Carl Fogarty comes to this small town where he insisted that Tom Stall was really a mobster from Philadelphia who was named Joey Cusack. Upon Carl’s arrival, “Tom” is forced to face his violent past when his wife, Edie, and teenage son, Jack, are put in danger.

The actor who played Tom Stall in this film was Viggo Mortensen. Mortensen played a man who was pretending to be someone else. Essentially Tom Stall was living a lie and a in a way he was a man with split personalities. This could be a hard role to play I’m sure, however, I felt that Viggo Mortensen played this role particularly well. He did a good job playing the mild mannered man of Tom Stall. He was very believable in the Tom Stall role, so when I found out in the film that he had a violent past and his real name was Joey Cusack I was shocked. I think Mortensen was the perfect person for this role. To play this role you have to be very manipulative, sneaky and believable in doing so. To me, Mortensen was very captivating and very committed to this role.

Another main character in this film was Tom Stalls wife, Edie. Edie was played by Maria Bello. She played a very honest role of simply being his wife and mother to their son Jack. I felt that Bello’s acting in this film was not award winning or even recognizable for that matter. I felt at times she was bit overdramatic in her crying to the point where it seemed almost fake to me. Overall, I think she did an okay job in playing the role of Edie. I think maybe another actress would have been more suitable for the role but Bello did the job.

The character that I felt did the best job in the film was Carl Fogarty, played by Ed Harris. Carl Fogarty was a threatening stranger in this film. To me, he portrayed the image of a threatening, unknown, and sketchy man almost perfectly and was very captivating in this role. I think it could be rather difficult to play this role because you have to be very shadowy and suspicious, which not everyone can do. The way that he spoke in a very smug way and spoke with such confidence make his role very believable.

All in all, the acting in this film was above average to me. I think the main characters did a good job in this film and were very convincing. The minor roles in this film were not the most believable to me and I believe for those roles better casting could have been initiated. Aside from the acting of this film, I enjoyed this film and it kept me on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this film to other people in the hopes they would get a thrill out of it as did I .