No History Of Love

I really wanted to love this movie for some reason. I'm not a big Cronenberg fan. I guess I liked The Fly and Videodrome but those were 20 years ago. Oh and I liked that head explosion scene in Scanners. I recently watched Videodrome and wow...is that flick dated or what? He did direct Crash. Oh shit, not that "Crash". I'm not a huge fan of the Viggo yet I thought he'd be great in this movie. I enjoyed the Rings' movies for what they were. Maybe because someone told me once that he was married to Exene Cervenka years ago. It must be that punk rock cred that endears me. I have to admit that I do like Maria Bello although she was in a much better film called The Cooler in 2003.

The idea for this movie is a good one. A small town coffee shop owner becomes a hero after foiling a robbery/murder at his establishment. He then receives national press coverage and is spotted by folks from his "previous" life. Turns out Tom is really Joey from Philly who left the mob for the simple life. The problem is the characters from his previous life are goofy as hell. It's almost comical. William Hurt's performance as Joey's brother is so over the top and stupid it's embarrassing. Ed Harris is Ed Harris, who's a little more of a gentleman than you'd expect from someone who received the barbed wire to the face treatment. On the plus side Viggo and Maria Bello are good in this flick. Bello is actually great in this film. I thought the movie was going to be darker but you could almost picture Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson starring and Ron Howard directing this movie. It's far from terrible and entertaining in parts, but well below my unwarranted expectations.

For you Cronenberg fans, don't worry he still likes filming the nookie. Viggo and Maria have two, almost uncomfortably long, love scenes. Maybe he missed his calling. He should just do porno and leave the storytelling to someone else.