Eastern Promises

London, Russian Mob, Cronenberg, Viggo, no prior knowledge of extended full frontal male nudity … Eastern Promises was an easy choice. I don’t think this reached the level of A History of Violence but it was still a great movie. There is just a real good vibe between Cronenberg and Viggo working right now. And Viggo wasn't the only one delivering memorable perforamances here. Eastern Promises was just a damn good film.

There is just something about Viggo Mortensen that sets him apart from other top-billed actors. He just slips into roles and disappears behind the character. There is little Aragon to be seen in Nikolai. The tats, suits, and sunglasses help disguise the man that Nikolai really is. You can see that he does not take joy in the life of a Russian mobster, but the reason why actually caught me off guard. Viggo does the menacing, the protecting, the violence, and also the nudity. Why was the ambush set in a bathhouse? Couldn’t it have been set somewhere that involved the wearing of pants? Ah well, it didn’t by any means ruin the movie. If Viggo held the movie down, Vincent Cassel bounced off the walls from beginning to end. It was his character’s arc that moved Eastern Promises up a level. Once again, I did not expect his arc to end where it did. When Kirill enters the movie, you feel that he is just the egotistical son of a mob boss who abuses his power. It also looked like he was being set-up to turn on Nikolai at the conclusion of the story. But it turns out that he is probably gay and his heart isn’t in being as brutal as his father. He had some great scenes; where he demands to watch while Nikolai has sex with a hooker, when he finds out that Nikolai has been promoted, and his final scene with the baby. It was just a great performance by Cassel. Another in a laundry list of acting praise goes to Armin Mueller-Stahl. He is able to switch from nice old Russian man willing to help Naomi Watts to downright evil mob boss. You even get to see him morph the 2 roles into 1 man when he meets Naomi in the hospital. Naomi Watts is the last name I am going to throw out there. She doesn’t have a flashy role like the others that I have mentioned but she is the character that the story is flowing through. I appreciate that she was never thrown into any cheap female in danger scenes; Naomi put the pieces together and worked with Viggo to keep the baby safe. There were numerous greats scenes with her and Viggo and also with Armin. This was an all around well-acted movie.

Of course I am attracted to the performances within movies first, but I still want to take the time to praise David Cronenberg’s direction. Eastern Promises is his second movie in a row that can almost be described as mainstream. I don’t know if that makes them better or worse than his past work but I definitely am a fan of A History of Violence and now Eastern Promises. The way he shoots violence is like no other director that I can think of. It is almost beyond real. When people are stabbed in Eastern Promises it is horrifying. He also makes the ending the work even if it doesn’t really make you feel like the story is over. I am going to start anticipating Cronenberg’s movies more and more now.

Eastern Promises is another great movie to add to the list for 2007. The team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen have delivered twice in a row. I don't have really anything negative to say about this film. In fact, I wish all movies were as good as this. This is an easy recommendation to make.

9 out of 10