Eastern Promises

In the eighties David Cronenberg directed some of the most bizarre movies ever (Videodrome, The Fly, Scanners and Dead Ringers) and then int he nineties he kind of went off the grid making movies that couldn't seem to find an audience. In 2005 he found his spark again and created a masterpiece of social commentary with A History of Violence. Rich with imagery and brutal, and raw violence the movie marked a distinct change in style and story telling methods for Cronenberg. When I found out he was reteaming with Viggo Mortensen to tell a movie about a Russian mobster, well I was unbelievably excited. After a weeks worth of anticipation because I couldn't get to it opening weekend, I finally saw it and was it worth the anticipation?


Anna(Naomi Watts) is a midwife at a local hospital and she helps deliver a baby to a 14 year old Russian girl who dies while giving birth. The young girl had a diary, written in Russian and Anna is trying to find any family of this girl. In the diary was a business card for a restaurant and Anna goes off to investigate. At the restaurant she meets a trio of Russian mobsters- Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Kirill(Vincent Cassel) and Nikolai(Viggo Mortensen). Anna understands that something is wrong but she is a persistent woman and wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Her uncle can read Russian and he agrees to translate it for her if she will turn it all over the police and let them deal with it. The girl was raped, drugged and beaten by someone in this Russian Mafia and as the story progresses we learn a lot of nasty secrets. The movie switches focus though to the character of Nikolai. He is a loyal servant to the cause of the mafia, but he is drowned in mystery. We don't know anything about his past at first, just that he is a seriously bad dude. Eventually the movie becomes about the two character of Anna and Nikolai and it uses the plot to delve into the inner thoughts and emotions of these two seemingly unconnected people.


I have to admit I came out of this movie incredibly disappointed. It is a slow plodding movie that never feels like it is finished. The script is nowhere near as good as I had hoped and the story unfolds in too basic a fashion. I understand that this movie is not about progressing a story, but even at the heart of the film the story still has to matter in order for me to care about the world set up. The movie opens with the promise of more brutal uncompromising violence but then it is taken away until the one fight towards the end. The twist that comes in the movie didn't confuse me or make any real awesome revelation about any character either. Maybe the point is that not everything has a real motive and not everyone progresses from experiences, but to me I was just left with this feeling that this was not a finished work.


Performance wise though it is a very good movie. Never before have I ever seen an actor command such strong presence with such a soft spoken voice like Mortensen. He is such a bad ass that he never needs to raise his voice to make you pay attention. He is a stone cold mofo and really keeps this movie from totally spinning out of control. Watts is brilliant as always, although I wish she had more to do. She does a good job of looking frightened but the character just seems to be lacking something for me. Mueller-Stahl is excellent as the mob boos. He oozes a creepy command and we know he really is willing to do anything to maintain his own freedom. Cassel is the downside here though. Perhaps it is the whiny character of Kirill that bothered me, or how cliche it was that the big bad mob boss' son isn't all that tough and over compensates by being loud and obnoxious, but Cassel didn't do anything to lessen the annoyance.


This is a step back for Cronenberg in my mind. The movie doesn't hold together well and the pacing is off. I was bored for the first time ever in a Cronenberg film, but he does get one thing right in a major way. There is a scene being talked about in the magazines and movie websites and that scene involves Viggo fighting two guys. It doesn't sound that bad, but Viggo is completely naked, minus the body of story telling tattoos. Cronenberg takes away the Howard Shore score here and we here every brutal punch and every time a knife slices through the naked skin of Viggo. Viggo made a bold choice by doing the scene himself and it really raises the intensity of it, knowing it was him. This is not a fun movie violence scene and it it isn't titillating as the camera never focuses on his penis. It is just a nice metaphor for how defenseless Nikolai is in the situation or how naked he is as a character. It is the one truly chilling moment in the movie and shows the brilliance of Cronenberg, I just wish the rest of the movie were up to par!