Eastern Promises [DVD]

Not too grimy and not too glitzy either, this film seems to carefully pick its way through the normal gangster tropes, without being over-the-top violent, while still managing to deliver the odd shock. The stories have been told before - poor Eastern European girls tricked into prostitution, then addicted to drugs and kept as sex slaves; Russian mobsters vs. Chechen mobsters; older gangsters clinging to power; their aging wives holding traditional parties; the baptism of violence in order to get 'starred up'; and the prison tattoos, like a tapestry of suffering written large across their bodies. Predators, the lot of them, and they should all be crucified, but they do exist. The underworld does indeed exist, but normal folks don't see it, if they're lucky.Cronenberg dials it back a bit here, but Mortensen is excellent, outshone only by Cassel's hyper-active performance as the bosses' son. Naomi Watt's nurse is a bit of an irritant, but she is central to the story, so one has to repress the desire to strangle her. All-in-all a very good film. All shot in London, often in the rain, and with a few familiar faces popping up here and there, it's a little gem, only not as hardcore as it might have been. However, because of the subject matter, and a couple of brutal scenes, I would not let anyone under the age of 16/17 watch this film, and only then with adult supervision. Sure, kids can watch whatever they like these days on the internet, but as a parent I think one needs to show them where the line is drawn, at least while you're around, and this film is right on that line.

If you are like me, that don't like movies that underestimate your intelligence, this movie is not for you.A nurse which came from a Russian dad kept a diary of a dead girl who also Russian and suspected of being murdered, that appears at her hospital, trying to investigate where the girl came from. The nurse's father which by that way, read the diary first thing on the very next day and warns her about the dangerous content hiding in it, and even knowing it, she goes to the very heart of the Russian Mafia to ask for help to translate it!? Please, give me a break! Why she didn't ask for her father in the first place? Oh, yes, if not, they cannot make this movie. Don't waste your time.

Some plot holes, and a film that probably was a bit underwhelming, but even so there was enough going on in the story to maintain your interest. A few scenes of quite graphic violence...but that is interspersed with the tale unfolding. Not everything makes sense, and i think ultimately i was a bit disappointed, but worth the 3 stars and worth a watch.

Eastern Promises is directed by David Cronenberg and written by Steven Knight. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Peter Suschitzky.When a Russian teenager dies in childbirth, midwife Anna Khitrova (Watts) tries to seek out any relatives so that the baby will not be put into the foster care system. Following leads written in the dead girl's harrowing diary, Anna is led to mysterious Russian chauffeur Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) and the underworld of the Russian Mafia.After the critical and box office success of A History of Violence in 2005, it was no surprise to see director Cronenberg and lead man Mortensen team up again for another violent thriller. Perhaps less surprising is that it's equally as great, more proof positive that even when the great director goes mainstream he's still making powder-keg cinema.Set in London, a seamy London at that, Eastern Promises takes a look at a criminal underworld thriving beneath the city's glossy veneer. This isn't about the rat-a-tat of machine guns, this is slow and methodical criminality, where all roads lead to pain and misery for anyone not in league with, or on the wrong side of, the Vory V Zakone. Cronenberg never lets the film go up a pace, which is absolutely to the film's benefit, even as violence is rendered, and body horror (hey this is Cronenberg after all) comes our way, it's cloaked in a controlled melancholy that just pulses with sinister beats.Steven Knight's screenplay has a few tricks up its sleeve, not only on revelation terms, but also thematically as loyalty and family dynamics come under the microscope. There's also strong themes of identity and sexuality, again these are things that appeal to the director and he deftly inserts them into his pot-boiling conundrum. While the moral questions that Eastern Promises asks, are not answered by the makers, it is us the audience left to ponder such moral quandaries.The look is terrific, steely neo-noir photography for city streets and scapes, pronounced reds and greens scorch the eyes in certain interiors, and muted cold colours adorn the screen for moments of murky doings. Of course tech credits are no good if the central acting performance is off form, but once again for Cronenberg, Mortensen comes up trumps with a clinical portrayal. He looks perfect physically, with his torso adorned with striking tattoos, but also his mannerisms are magnetic, effortlessly shifting between ruthless mob employee and sensitive humanitarian. He also has to play his cards close to his chest, and he does so with great skill, while his Russian accent holds superbly. Cronenberg and Mortensen researched the topic vigorously, and it shows.Elsewhere the other actors also provide colourful and emotionally smart portrayals. Watts is a bit short changed with the character as written, and it's an irk that it never gives the actress more meat to chew on. Yet she draws you into Anna's stoic belief system with ease and she does a rather ace British accent as well. Stahl is just terrifying, the embodiment of a Godfather figure prepared to enact unspeakable crimes while ensuring the codes of family and the mob are never tampered with. And on the outer edges, with a tricky characterisation that calls for quick shifts of temperament, is Cassel, the presence and a jumping-bean bouncing around Mortensen's calm assuredness. While in secondary support it's great to see Donald Sumpter used to good effect as the senior police officer in charge of investigations.From the early sight of blood splattering on the floor of a pharmacy, to a most brazen and astonishingly raw fight staged in a Turkish bath house, Eastern Promises is never dull or what you could term normal. And yet this is why Cronenberg is still one of the finest auteur directors out there, because Eastern Promises always plays out as frighteningly real. 8/10

The lie being told here is that child abduction for prostitution is rare and confined only to Russia. The absence of subtitles and fake Russian accents make it difficult to follow.