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Title: Several strong performances
Review: As someone who has followed David Cronenberg's career since Scanners, to me this new film is the latest step in his evolution to a mature and skilled filmmaker. It's amazing to chart his progress from that early work to this subtle and complex movie. The story surprised me (the expected climax came about an hour in, and everything after that was new territory) and it got me thinking about how an act of violence can change a family. In that respect it has some parallels to Road to Perdition, although that is a superior movie. Still, I was impressed by many of the acting performances in History, especially from Maria Bello, the great Ed Harris, and the young guy who played the teenage son. It stops short of being a "masterpiece" -- the plot was a bit too chopped-up for that, and it fell into a lull at odd times -- but it was still an entertaining and worthwhile movie-going experience.
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