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.