| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Eastern Promises Are Kept
by Eric (movies profile)
Jul 1, 2008
66
of
75 people found this review helpful
I went to Eastern Promises with a good friend of mine, along with our respected girlfriends. As we waited for the show to start, we started talking about David Cronenberg, his movies, and what we were expecting. That was when my friend’s girlfriend mentioned that she thought The Fly (one of my favorites) to be “wet, violent, and creepy.” In a way, that could be said of ALL of Cronenberg’s films, doubly said for his current one. And yet I found myself not only entranced by the film’s unique environment, but by the way the characters related to each other and how they saw themselves. In that matter, Cronenberg has actually ascended to a new level of storytelling along with screenwriter Steven Knight.
Eastern Promises is set in the London that Richard Curtis knows nothing about. It’s full of rain-filled alleys, dark corridors and Russians everywhere. The movie starts with two actions that seem unconnected; a bloody murder of a Russian mobster and the death of a pregnant 14-year-old prostitute. The midwife who helped to deliver the baby in time, Anna (played by Naomi Watts), takes an immediate liking to the baby. We find out she lost hers very recently. She decides to try to find the next-of-kin, and her only clue is a diary that the girl had with her. Inside that diary is a card for a Russian eatery ran by Semyon (Shine’s Armin Mueller-Stahl), who we immediately feel is more dangerous than he appears. He isn’t interested in the dead girl who might have worked for him until he knows about the diary, which he opens up his services to translate. But Anna isn’t fooled by the gesture; she opts to have her Russian uncle translate it for her.
In the midst of this are Semyon’s son Kirill (Vincent Cassell) and his driver Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). Kirill is a violent hothead that is far from the apple of his father’s eye. Nikolai seems to be more a babysitter than anything else, cleaning up after the messes made. Nikolai takes a liking to Anna, although Anna doesn’t seem to have a thing for gangsters. But as the dairy gets translated, and we find the connections between the baby and the mob, she finds that he might be her closest ally or her most dreaded enemy. And the more we know about this man, we find ourselves even more mystified by him, even after a major revelation that comforts some, but doesn’t comfort me.
Bt as much as this is a movie about story, it’s even more about characters. Eastern Promises has some of the most dangerous characters I have seen in the movies this year, and not entirely because of their capacity of violence, but in the calm way they instill the threat of violence. In that case Semyon is the most dangerous man in the movie. His offer to translate the diary to anyone in his circle might seem noble, but outside of this small world, we wouldn’t buy it. Look at the scene where he sets up one of his own to be butchered. Even Tony Soprano would be jealous. Kirill is dangerous in only because he has no control over his impulses. On top of that, he might be dealing with a sexual matter that has him forcing his men to do things as means of transference. When blood is spilt, it’s neither, quick or slick. Each death requires effort and resistance, which makes the infamous bathhouse scene infamous.
Something needs to be said about the wonderful cast of this film. I love how Naomi Watts plays her character not so much innocent as she is yearning. She wants the baby for herself, but feels compelled to do the right thing. I love how Cassell takes his part and refuses to make this guy too villainous as much as he is childish. But when it comes to acting, we have to give it up to Armin Mueller-Stahl and Viggo Mortensen, both I feel might be looking at Oscar nominations. As Semyon, Mr. Mueller-Stahl really does make the dual nature of his character really come out. In no means do we think he’s a good man, but he feels comfortable in his role of dispensing life or death to others and sees it as justified. And Mortensen just disappears in his role. He talks in a fluent Russian that makes you think about his origins. I love how he moves and talks with an authority that would come with a man like this. He has that steel gray look that worked well for Tom Cruise in Collateral. And when we see those tattoos on his body, we are genuinely creeped out.
Writer Steven Knight had written another movie about the London underclass called Dirty Pretty Things that I didn’t entirely like but respected. That movie dealt with illegal immigrants in London trying to make their way in a city that swallows them whole. In this film, the script is much tighter; much more character-based and really gave us some intense moments. Knitted to David Cronenberg’s filmmaking style, it’s easy to see how it matches. Cronenberg’s A History of Violence was great, if not a little uneven. Here, he’s fixed the kinks, allowed for some truly remarkable casting and location uses, and gives us a movie that feels complete. By the time we get to the end, we feel full, needing no more of these characters or of this story. And does this movie ever feel wet, violent, and creepy? Sardonically, I smile to myself just thinking back on it.
All in all, this easily one of the finest films from a great filmmaker. It is a mobster story that doesn’t feel like the mobster stories that we’ve heard. Nor does it end with thirty seconds of black screen. |
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