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Review by David DiMichele

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Director David Cronenberg does something in most of his movies that not that many other directors do, and that is to craft such a realistic, believable, and absorbing atmosphere that in watching his movies we feel as if we are really part of the world he creates. Take for example some his previous films: Videodrome, The Fly, Naked Lunch and A History of Violence. In all of them he has the audience right where he wants it and that is in feeling comfortable within the given setting. Watching those films we're at ease and then suddenly, when you least expect it, BOOM, Cronenberg throws the kitchen sink at us. Our reaction? We absolutely love it.

Cronenberg lights a match and that match doesn't burn out until the credits at the end begin to roll. The techniques that he uses, and the way he uses them, are incredibly subtle. One scene begins with a human neck being sawed at and then moves to a pregnant woman bleeding from the womb and collapsing at a drug store, yet the next scene is so laid back and calm that it is really beyond my imagination to work out how he does it. A pattern like this has to be timed and played out without any blemishes in order to work the audience over with such emotional power. Eastern Promises is like this the whole way through. You just have no clue where this movie is going to go.

Covered head to toe with tattoos, ready to explode at any given second, Viggo Mortensen is a visionary and nothing less than great as he burns a hole through the screen. He plays Nikolai, a driver for the vulgar and ignorant Kirill (Vincent Cassel), the only son of the Russian mafia's boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). He tells Kirill at one point: "Don't worry - you have me." We get a feeling that he's either going to hurt Kirill for giving him so many orders or he's going to leave because he knows too much about this dreadful family. Mortensen deserves a nomination for his role as a chauffeur who not only drives the family around London but gets more and more involved with them.

This group of people crosses paths with midwife Ann (Naomi Watts), who has her own problems. Her husband ran away from her and her baby died at birth. She stumbles upon a red diary that came from one of her patient s - a woman called Tatiana (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) who died giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. Ann's life will never be the same again. Because of the diary and a baby girl who is now her responsibility, she attracts the attention of the meanest of people.

As she goes through the diary, she finds an address and goes there. It turns out that the place is a huge restaurant that houses the Russian mafia known as Vory V Zakone. She wants Semyon to answer her questions about Tatiana but never gets a straightforward answer until she tells him that she has Tatiana's diary. That's when she gets more than his attention. The diary holds deeply hidden secrets and truths which could bring down the entire house of the Vory V Zakone. Semyon wants to translate it for her but she gets an uncle who was in the KGB, the Russian secret police, to translate it for her. The only thing he wants is for Ann to bury the diary and not get involved in the evil world of the Vory V Zakone.

There are strong comparisons with The Godfather films. The restaurant is always cooking up some fanciful and delicious meal, family plays a huge part, the music has the same pace and emotional feel as in The Godfather and Semyon is friendly and loving. But when he needs to be, he is venal and ruthless. When one of his workers comes to him and says: "I fear you more than our enemy," it solidifies his status among his men.

The movie is dark and it needs to be in order to set the right mood. It's shot beautifully with scenes you won't soon forget. The naked Mortensen fighting two men in a sauna, a certain way of slicing people's throats and a particular shot when we see Nikolai in the foreground as a fire seems to be burning him are all good examples. The narrating of the diary also adds a special touch to the movie. Whoever is reading the diary, it seems that what is happening onscreen is a reflection of what the person is reading in the diary. Powerful stuff.

Cronenberg likes to create movies that essentially stick with you long after the movie is over. Eastern Promises is no different. This is the director's best work to date. It catches you off guard and floors you.

Film Rating: **** out of ****

[Official Movie Site]

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Comments (1)

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David, really great film review! This film is certainly another hit for Cronenberg. At this year's TIFF, it won the Peoples Choice Award so, hopefully there will be more awards for it to come.

May I suggest two other Cronenberg films from a few years back, if by chance you or our readers haven't seen them yet that I liked quite a bit: Crash and Spider. Both also very dark, disturbing, and powerful as well.

I would really like to see Eastern Promises on DVD (and also after reading your review!), but here's hoping that I can handle the depictions of people being dismembered, lol. Cause lets just say I'm not much into any of the Saw movies....Perhaps the infamous Viggo bathouse fighting scene will help offset all the limbs being dismembered huh?!

Jan , December 19, 2007

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