Excellent film.
I refrained from posting about this movie because I really wanted it to sink in. While I wasn't in love with the film immediately after it ended, after a couple of hours of discussion with Eliza, that changed. It is a simple story with simple characters, and it isn't trying to do too much. With that the movie succeeds like few I have seen in years.
Viggo Mortensen is a subtle but forceful actor, and in the lead role (Tom Stall) he completely takes over as a Indiana diner owner with a haunting past. Maria Bello is terrific as the wife and mother, Edie Stall, and gives us a viewpoint; we are right there with her. Who is this guy?
The dialogue is icy, but so realistic and so nuanced everything just works. We feel like we're in middle America, similar to 1998's
'A Simple Plan.' There is some classic Cronenberg graphic violence coupled with sex, and diehards won't be disappointed, yet it all plays out into a genre busting thiller/romance/action/mystery/character study.
Ed Harris's head ganster, Carl Fogarty, starts the plot's main crux, and William Hurt is sublime as Richie Cusack in a role unlike anything I ever seen before. The ending isn't perferctly clear or even necessarily satisfying, but the movie certainly was for this guy.
(A-)