>1) why the offensively bad acting? everyone was playing their
>characters WAY over the top...almost like a really bad local
>theater performance. but then viggo was pretty much playing
>it straight the whole movie. the little daughter seemed
>especially terrible. was this intentional?

Don't know what you were watching.

>2) what was the point of overplaying the whole idylic,
>laughably-rockwellian, Everytown USA (the scene where the
>whole family comes to comfort the little daughter in
>bed...wtf?) when you've already started the movie with an
>over-the-top violent scene (the slaughter at the motel)?

Contrast. His history can't be outrun even there.

>3) graphic, awkward sex...why?

It's realistic.

>4) stilted, badly-choreographed actions scenes...why?

This is a movie about how much trauma violence causes, not a Michael Bay movie. Murders don't tend to be nicely-choreographed in real life.

>from the opening frame, this was really hard to sit through.

Good, it's supposed to be.

>i'm really stumped as to how so many critics could be so
>completely wrong. is this just a case of major plea-copping
>for cronenberg?
>