I just knew this movie would be a good one the moment I first heard about it. David Cronenberg makes the kind of movies that are my personal favourite style of cinema, big chunks of film chopped together into 90 minutes, a music score bubbling underneath broad strokes conveying a simultaneously simple and complex idea. Here, he starts with what must be the last remaining all-American family in the last remaining all-American small town. Tom Stall owns a coffee shop, his wife is a lawyer who doesn’t mind getting a little kinky now and then, he has a beautiful blonde little girl and a son who seems capable of handling his standard teen altercations at school with clever words instead of fists. Everybody says hi to him in the street, and when Bad Men enter his life and force him to resort to violence to protect his friends and family, people actually show up at the hospital to applaud his heroism. But then, even Badder Men start to appear, slowly peeling away at the edges of Stall’s perfect life, shattering his family life by bringing secrets to light.

While I was watching the movie I’d actually clean forgotten that it was based on a graphic novel (which I haven’t read), I was just reminded as I looked at the IMDb details. Now the look of the movie makes more sense. The photography is really stylish in places, especially towards the end when Tom goes to see [William Hurt’s character – don’t want to spoil anything]. The acting is perfect, the violence spectacular but not overwhelming. This could be my new favourite Cronenberg after my last viewing of Crash left me a little cold.

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