Eastern Promises
By Jason Revill
When it comes to horror David Cronenberg is no doubt a master. In movies like The Fly and The Brood he brought body horror to the mainstream. There are few things more terrifying than the idea of ones own body mutating into some grotesquery or worse having that thing growing inside of you. Cronenberg’s focus may have shifted to fears that are based more in the worries of modern life, but with all the throats slashed and bath house knife fights in Eastern Promises the horror is still there.
After the death of a pregnant teenager, Anna Khitova (Naomi Watts) decides to track down the family of the orphaned child. In doing so she seeks the help of Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), the owner of Trans-Siberian restaurant in translating the dead mother’s diary. Unbeknownst to her, he is actually the head of a Russian crime family and the more she presses him about the girl the more threatening he and his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) become. The more she uncovers about the girl the more dangerous her life becomes, but she finds that she may have an ally in the family’s mysterious driver, Nikolai (Viggo Mortenson).
Every performance in Eastern Promises is pitch perfect. Viggo Mortenson’s Nikolai is a walking enigma, who seems fairly affable but is also as hard and sharp as a razor blade. He’s able to draw you in, but you feel like he may be doing so to kill you. As his moral counterpoint Naomi Watts turns in another strong performance that will go largely unnoticed. She is generally a strong actress, even when working opposite a giant computer generate ape in King Kong. Personally my favorite performances come from both Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Cassel is like a giant child who can’t control his own hedonistic and sometimes deadly desires. I wouldn’t feel bad if anyone in Eastern Promises were nominated for an award, but as the head of the Russian crime family Mueller-Stahl’s ability to seem as loveable as your favorite grandfather while also being evil is probably the obvious choice.
As a Cronenberg fan, I have to admit that I find his recent works and the transition into them fascinating. As much as I enjoy Videodrome and The Fly, I was just a kid when those movies came out. The visuals and gore of those films are amazing but the fear of technology and its impact on humans may be a bit lost on a kid raised on Nintendo and Transformers. That being said as I get older I find myself bristling more and more to each and every new techno-craze. Damn iPhones. What I can get behind is the almost xenophobic fear of the people around you, whether they be familiar or strangers. The idea that everyone has a story or a past and if you peal back a layer, you never know what’s hiding beneath it is about an appropriate theme for our modern times as I can think of.
The only real complaint about this film you’ll hear is that Eastern Promises may be a bit too mechanical and is pretty much a genre piece. Now, at first that’s exactly how I felt about it, but the more I mull it over the more I like it and the less I feel that way. I think that due to Cronenberg’s talent and efficiency as a filmmaker that may it seem to be the case at first glance, but that’s what he wants. By putting the enigmatic Nikolai at the center of this film everything seems a little of kilter and is almost like some modern myth about good and evil. Nothing and no one is what they appear to be and even after we find out Nikolai’s true motives we don’t feel even that is the truth of the matter.
With Eastern Promises David Cronenberg, has added another great film to his resume. He may no longer be making films about people’s bodies rotting off or mutant fetuses, but his latest work is able to show another aspect of universal human fear. Eastern Promises may not quite be up there with A History of Violence, but at least you don’t have to sit through William Hurt mugging up a storm.
The Grade
- Story: B+
- Acting: A
- Visuals: B+
- Originality: B+
- Enjoyability: A-
- Overall: A-
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