Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Overrated

Fantastic!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

...sums it up for me. I didn't have a great deal of expectation as I got to see this movie for free on Amazon Prime -missed it when it was first out. The film is 12 years old but it's bad now and for it's time -as much as movies have changed and audiences have gotten smarter -it doesn't matter a well done movie is a well done movie period from any time and this isn't! I agree with all the previous reviews in why the movie is lacking: underdeveloped story and characters - ridiculous action scenes that lack suspense, surprise and might as well be in slow motion -sex scenes and full frontal nudity that are completely out of place and no real history to the characters beside Toms'(Viggo Mortensen) "history of violence" which isn't ever really fully explained -he screwed with bad people in his shady past- I don't care enough about the character to care! I'd be more interested in how he came to this small town and chose to stay, how he met his wife and how they fell in love and the changes that happen to him as he becomes a husband, a father and a better person. All of that is just assumed in a sophomoric connect the dots kind of way as should be expected based on a graphic novel -there is a deeper, fuller, much better story here that's never realized -it's too bad cause David Cronenberg has done much better work (check out The Dead Zone) - (*spoiler alert*) the whole killing off of the 3 bad guys (including Ed Harris' character) and how that is swept under the rug -where is the town reaction, news etc. -after such a big deal was made about Tom being a hero??? someone already in the spotlight would have even more attention on them just days later after a triple murder on their property??? I feel like this movie should have been much longer and should have taken at least 30-40 minutes or more to establish itself and Tom's life in small town (Millbrook, Indiana) America -before the bad guys show up (Think of the movie Witness and why we care about the characters...) And yes the movie has violence and to me it doesn't matter or work for the film - like Quentin Tarantino's movies are often violent but because they are so well done and you care about the characters the violence is a working part of the story and doesn't degrade it. This movie lacks everything: story, real characters and even violence that matters or works!!

Despite sitting through this film to its conclusion I have to say it is currently overrated on IMDb and while I didn't quite hate the film I didn't quite like it enough to rate it much higher than I have. I found some of the scripting to be quite cringe worthy and unrealistic and some of the early scenes were quite poorly acted out especially in relation to those stories that relating to the family and children. On the plus side in the action/violent scenes and the development of the main character,who was acted more bearably than other characters throughout, was interesting. The one plus in terms of the story and style of presentation in violent/ tense scenes was that there were some minor reflections of the movie and TV series Fargo which kept me just about interested enough to stay watching to the end.

Viggo Mortensen displays a wonderfully natural combination of innocence, pain and confusion playing the proprietor of a small town diner who says he's been mistaken by mobsters out of Philadelphia for being a killer living under an assumed identity. David Cronenberg directs this intense drama with a sure hand, though the plot, loosely adapted from a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, grows steadily more outrageous as it nears its conclusion. Still, Josh Olson's Oscar-nominated screenplay holds several surprises and interesting characters, though his usage of 'faggot' as a put-down is mighty old (can't we call a moratorium on this ancient schoolyard insult?). Handsomely-produced and nicely acted throughout, with William Hurt also Oscar-nominated in a small but pivotal role. **1/2 from ****

Really can't understand why this movie has so many good reviews. Probably some kind of confirmation bias due to its director, because, well, the movie is TERRIBLE bad.Bad acting, bad plot, bad violence scenes, bad sex scenes, damn, the whole movie just doesn't work out. It has a promising beginning, but after the first half hour it justs become a really awful movie that tries at all costs to be some kind of 2000's masterpiece, it just pushes it too hard, everything is made in the intention of "shocking" you, and while it may actually work for some people, it does not for someone who is used to movies that REALLY set boundaries in being shocking like the ol'good exploitation movies.