Viggo Mortensen here plays almost a flipside of his role in Cronenberg’s earlier ‘A History of Violence‘. He has a perfectly stoic face where you can just feel things are bubbling below the surface. The other memorable performance here is that of the calm but vicious Semyon played by Armin Mueller-Stahl. He reminded me of no other than Brando playing the Godfather, a character you want to like, but deep down you know he is not a very good person. The ending is a bit neat and messy at the same time, a weak point in an otherwise very good film.
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