Good storytelling but unnecessary and unpleasant gratuitous violence and sexual content. I don't know how the movie made it into the R rated category; it's too explicit at times. Even with a parent or guardian I would never allow my kids to see this movie. The sexual content was especially unpleasant as I found the protagonist and his wife repulsive.
The biggest downer to the film is that in spite of it being so character driven and so reliant on the relationships of the characters with each other and with themselves the characters don't really grow as people. Viggio's character seems to show some growth, but when he states to his brother that he does love having a family and being a father the audience realizes that he has always felt this way from the start of the film. He would not have stayed so long with his wife raising the children if he did not love them and love the simple life of a small town.
Because you become emotionally involved with main characters and hope the best for them, it was such a disappointment that after taking us through so many emotional ups and downs journeying through the life of a former hit-man that we are presented with an inconclusive conclusion and a wordless acceptance of the hit-man-father without justifying why he was accepted once more by his family. The complexities of a tight-knit, small town, blissfully happy family dealing with a tragic, earth-shattering betrayal by the father can't be glossed over with such a cavalier ending! It renders all the gory violence, all the graphic lovemaking, all the intensity of the main characters completely pointless at the end. The director's meanings are left disjointed and we make only the vaguest logical connections between different components of the film. I gave this film only 6 stars because it has the potential to be so much more.
The biggest downer to the film is that in spite of it being so character driven and so reliant on the relationships of the characters with each other and with themselves the characters don't really grow as people. Viggio's character seems to show some growth, but when he states to his brother that he does love having a family and being a father the audience realizes that he has always felt this way from the start of the film. He would not have stayed so long with his wife raising the children if he did not love them and love the simple life of a small town.
Because you become emotionally involved with main characters and hope the best for them, it was such a disappointment that after taking us through so many emotional ups and downs journeying through the life of a former hit-man that we are presented with an inconclusive conclusion and a wordless acceptance of the hit-man-father without justifying why he was accepted once more by his family. The complexities of a tight-knit, small town, blissfully happy family dealing with a tragic, earth-shattering betrayal by the father can't be glossed over with such a cavalier ending! It renders all the gory violence, all the graphic lovemaking, all the intensity of the main characters completely pointless at the end. The director's meanings are left disjointed and we make only the vaguest logical connections between different components of the film. I gave this film only 6 stars because it has the potential to be so much more.