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Eastern Promises 2007
The mysterious, Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) is a driver for one of London’s most notorious organised crime families of Eastern European origin – part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Nikolai’s carefully maintained existence is upset once he crosses paths with Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby’s relatives, via the teenager’s diary. Written in Russian, Anna seeks answers in it, and in doing so accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With the mob closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Directed by David Cronenberg ('A History of Violence', 'Spider', 'Scanners', 'The Fly', 'Crash')
Written by Steven Knight
Festivals & Awards Golden Globe nominations 2008, Click for full list of nominations | 2007 Toronto Film Festival; winner of the People's Choice Award
Thriller, Drama, Mystery | 1hr 36mins | Rated (R18) | Graphic Violence & Sex Scenes | Origin: UK, Canada
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Flicks review
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Eastern Promises treads tricky ground, moving carefully between sombre London melancholy and Tarantinoesque gangster swagger. And given just how damn overdone both of those ingredients are, it could be lauded as a remarkable success.
But then, this is canny Canadian story-wizard David Cronenberg: treading tricky ground only just gets you in the door. With a body of work as gruellingly masterful as his, it’s fair that we want something more. And he offers it: Eastern Promises’ characters are the most human, dirty, stinky, flesh-and-blood group of ruffians yet depicted by the director.
Mortensen, as Cronenberg’s tortured wanderer du jour, offers a far more interesting performance than as his History of Violence cipher. And Vincent Cassell is… well, he’s Vincent Cassell, which is to say he’s a loathsome rat-man, so if you’re casting him as a loathsome rat-man, congratulations, instant star turn.
Yet, just when you think Eastern Promises is doing something really brave and departing from all the things that unite Cronenberg’s oeuvre (visceral body-angst, subjective realities, etc, etc), things go a little bit… Cronenbergian.
Let’s steer clear of anything that happens past an hour in, because there’s this awesome scene, followed by one plot development that happens that just whips you about the chops and forces you to sit up and wonder what movie we’ve just been dropped into. Unfortunately, everything after this point answers that question adroitly: A really shit one!
So what’s the deal? Is this a movie that turns story on its head, or is it just an intriguing movie with a really crap last act? Like Spider and Violence before it, there’s no easy answer to that one - kind of like most of the questions in a Cronenberg movie.
Dave, in the words of your countrywoman: Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?
By Tom Goulter, Flicks.co.nz
The Peoples voice
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Enthralling
5
2nd viewing was even better than the first -Cronenburg achieves his intention - not instant noodles variety, but subtle feast. The violence is shocking and graphic, but well contextualised. The nude Viggo fight scene-um-unforgetable! Insights all around, complex characters, great acting, not at all too arty but just visually intelligent, learning about the russian mafia codes of tattooing, much to recommend.
By keesh
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Makes you wonder (yet again) at what really goes on in gangland
4
A movie worth seeing. reading the "Flicks" review below, I might not have bothered, but I'm glad I did. disagree with the overly "critical arty farty' style critique of the "flicks"reviewer.
See it!By Brian
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Liked it
4
I really enjoyed this one. It was quite simple, and had modest intentions. But it had a few good performances, and some well directed scenes made it worth watching. It was brutal, graphically violent, and pornographic. But intelligently made, I thought.
By Will Abbott
Press Reviews
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Los Angeles Times
Expertly realized and gunmetal slick, Eastern Promises whirs along with perfect efficiency, but doesn't stir much in the way of visceral horror despite its penchant for treating the human body like a chicken carcass on a block. (Squeamishness, yes)...
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NZ Herald [Francesca Rudkin]
4 4 out of 5 stars
With this medium-paced film Cronenberg lives up to his controversial reputation by throwing shockingly short, sharp moments of gruesome violence at us. While you can't help but feel he's having fun at the viewer's expense, it's easy to forgive him, thanks to the to the intriguing storylines and wonderfully tense and restrained performances his cast deliver, making this an engrossing, if at times, outrageous visual experience...
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The Christchurch Press [James Croot]
4 4 out of 5 stars
1/2 As in his A History of Violence and his earlier body-horror movies like The Fly and eXistenZ, Cronenberg excels at rapidly changing the film's tempo with short, sharp, shocks of unflinching, unblinking and uncompromising violence...
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The Dominion Post [Graeme Tuckett]
5 5 out of 5 stars
This brutal, disquieting, and sombre film is easily one of the very best of the year...
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The New York Times
The rigor of Mr. Cronenberg’s direction sometimes seems at odds with the humanism of Mr. Knight’s script, but more often the director’s ruthless formal command rescues the story from its maudlin impulses. Mr. Knight aims earnestly for your heartstrings, but Mr. Cronenberg insists on getting under your skin. The result is a movie whose images and implications are likely to stay in your head for a long time...
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USA Today
Eastern Promises has a compelling story and strong performances to back up what may seem excessive or sensationalistic...
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Village Voice [USA]
A rhapsodic movie directed with considerable formal intelligence and brooding power from an original screenplay by Steve Knight, Eastern Promises is very much a companion to "A History of Violence"...
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