In a wet and dreary pre-Christmas London, an anonymous, distressed, 14-year old Russian girl staggers into Trafalgar hospital, on the verge of giving birth, hemorrhaging badly and with obvious heroine tracks on her arms. Pediatric nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) tries in vain to save both mother and baby, but in the end, all that remains is the newborn, and a diary written in Russian in the girl's purse, that contains a business card for a Russian restaurant. Haunted by her own previous miscarriage, and determined that the baby girl not be sent to an orphanage, Anna attempts to have the diary translated in order to identify the anonymous girl's family. In so doing, she becomes embroiled in the dark, seething world of crime, drugs, and prostitution of the Russian Mob. It is an enclosed, hot house society, where family loyalty and responsibility and adherence to the "vory v zakone" code of thieves are paramount, and shady characters like the "restauranteur" Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and his "driver" Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) exist on the periphery of the law.
As a long-time fan of Cronenberg's work, it is interesting for me to see his recent films grab the public attention in such a mainstream way. While it is true that both "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises" feature less obviously fantastic elements than, say, "The Fly" or "Scanners", Cronenberg's uniquely clinical and undramatic visual and storytelling style remain intact throughout all of his films. Nothing in a David Cronenberg film appears on- screen without a reason. He's sort of the film-making equivalent of Ernest Hemingway: a deceptively simple, unflinching eye; a calm surface that somehow manages to get under your skin and hints at labyrinthine depths beneath. Cronenberg's work always makes you uncomfortable, but here in "Eastern Promises", it is done very subtly, almost subliminally, so you find yourself thinking about it afterward without realizing it.
The acting in Eastern Promises is uniformly excellent. Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai, in particular, displays a still, coiled menace that is chilling and intense, which plays well against Vincent Cassel's portrayal of the feral Kirill, whose confused and tortured attempts to live up to his father's criminal expectations set the plot in motion, and Armin Mueller-Stahl's stunningly nuanced performance as the crime boss Semyon: Satan dressed up as your favorite uncle at Christmastime. As Anna, unwittingly tossed into this den of serpents, Naomi Watts manages to be simultaneously vulnerable and tenacious in a role for which she will doubtless receive too little credit.
Cronenberg's no-nonsense approach to violence is still in evidence here, from the shockingly bloody opening scene, to one remarkably brutal fight sequence that deserves to be written down in the annals of film history, and is so astonishing that it isn't until afterward that you register the fact that Viggo Mortensen did the whole thing completely nude. But, in the end, it is the sinuous undercurrent of hope, the trickle of humanity that manages to somehow exist amongst these desperate characters, that sticks with me in this film. The writing hints at things rather than stating them, the muted "film noir" visual style enhances this, and even the "big plot twist" near the end of the story (that I wouldn't dream of spoiling for you) is handled with the most minimalist of gestures. I swear, sometime soon David Cronenberg is going to discover the meaning of life in a black screen.
As a long-time fan of Cronenberg's work, it is interesting for me to see his recent films grab the public attention in such a mainstream way. While it is true that both "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises" feature less obviously fantastic elements than, say, "The Fly" or "Scanners", Cronenberg's uniquely clinical and undramatic visual and storytelling style remain intact throughout all of his films. Nothing in a David Cronenberg film appears on- screen without a reason. He's sort of the film-making equivalent of Ernest Hemingway: a deceptively simple, unflinching eye; a calm surface that somehow manages to get under your skin and hints at labyrinthine depths beneath. Cronenberg's work always makes you uncomfortable, but here in "Eastern Promises", it is done very subtly, almost subliminally, so you find yourself thinking about it afterward without realizing it.
The acting in Eastern Promises is uniformly excellent. Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai, in particular, displays a still, coiled menace that is chilling and intense, which plays well against Vincent Cassel's portrayal of the feral Kirill, whose confused and tortured attempts to live up to his father's criminal expectations set the plot in motion, and Armin Mueller-Stahl's stunningly nuanced performance as the crime boss Semyon: Satan dressed up as your favorite uncle at Christmastime. As Anna, unwittingly tossed into this den of serpents, Naomi Watts manages to be simultaneously vulnerable and tenacious in a role for which she will doubtless receive too little credit.
Cronenberg's no-nonsense approach to violence is still in evidence here, from the shockingly bloody opening scene, to one remarkably brutal fight sequence that deserves to be written down in the annals of film history, and is so astonishing that it isn't until afterward that you register the fact that Viggo Mortensen did the whole thing completely nude. But, in the end, it is the sinuous undercurrent of hope, the trickle of humanity that manages to somehow exist amongst these desperate characters, that sticks with me in this film. The writing hints at things rather than stating them, the muted "film noir" visual style enhances this, and even the "big plot twist" near the end of the story (that I wouldn't dream of spoiling for you) is handled with the most minimalist of gestures. I swear, sometime soon David Cronenberg is going to discover the meaning of life in a black screen.