I thought the setup was a bit... well, belabored. I realize Cronenberg was making a point, but GODDAM it was slow. You can do slow, especially a director like Cronenberg, without doing boring.

And the support cast during this period was pretty fucking piss-poor. Are there not a million people yearning to be actors? Do we really have to watch bad actors?

Viggo was amazing. I wonder if they filmed all of the "Tom Stall" part before he started practicing his Philly accent, 'cause the switch was great. He's just a phenomenal actor.

Maria Bello was a close second. She did a great job (plus --CHEERLEADER OUTFIT!!-- yay! )

Ed Harris was stellar. Creepy. Great.

William Hurt was kind of fun in his role too.

Holy fuck there was some gore. Joey beat the FUCK out of that guy's nose. Cronenberg sure took effort to convey the gore. The guy getting the back of his head blown out, the shotgun to the chest, the nose beating, the neck stomp... pretty fucking vivid images.

I thought the son's situation and then violence at school was interesting. A little "after school special" (My Daddy's a Hitman, Now I Don't Whine), but a nice parallel none-the-less.

I'd like to see the family post Joey/Tom's return; how do they deal? The son's "If I rob the drugstore and don't give you a piece of the action are you gonna have me whacked?" was an interesting question. Will Joey/Tom continue to raise his family with quiet peace, or will his underlying violence now rear its ugly head more often?

And to the "I can't believe he returned to his family" thing: yeah, that was my first "major problem" thought at the end, but then... he kind of tied up all the loose ends as far as the mob was concerned. I'm sure the "fellas in Boston" don't like it when their guys are making up their own minds about who to kill, but all the injured parties involved from Joey's fuck-up were dead in the end (basically Ed Harris and Joey's brother, Richie). That plus he obviously wanted out, and had been gone for 15 years. Maybe they did just let it go.

I did have a problem with the sheriff, who seemed like a pretty smart guy, believing that Tom killed all those people and let it go so easily that Tom wasn't a hit man in a prior life. I mean come on, he FUCKED those guys up, both at the diner and in his yard. I mean he PUMMELED that guy's face with his hand. It'd be pretty hard to overlook that evidence.

so, as always, i'm last to the table on this one (and i'm assuming there's no dessert left for me) but i finally watched this last night. great film, great cronenberg, great ending. the tears in both of their eyes as they look pleading at each other and the kids set his place at the table before the credits roll was a thousand times more poignant than words ever would have been. and far more powerful a "silent ending" than even the deer hunter.

i was VERY surprised how the story moved along, i couldn't believe it when ed and his posse were dead well beofre the 2/3 mark of the film. i was stumped with "where is this gonna go from here?" . . . and yet i loved where it took me.

also, i'm glad it's run time barely passed an hour-forty. this would have been an EASY move to drag past the two-hour mark. but luckily david seemed like he knew to trim the fat and just give us the movie, and it payed off!

i'm mad i waited this long to finally see this, but i'm thrilled i had something THIS good to watch last night. it's been laying around the house for months, and i threw it in the dvd player on a whim. i'm damn glad i did.

staircase sex scene was da bomb.

I want everyone to know that Dead Ringers rules. That is all.