Eastern Promises (2007)

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Josef Altin as Ekrem, Mina E. Mina as Azim, Aleksander Mikic as Soyka, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse as Tatiana (as Sarah Jeanne Labrosse), Lalita Ahmed as Customer, Badi Uzzaman as Chemist, Naomi Watts as Anna, Doña Croll as Nurse (as Dona Croll), Raza Jaffrey as Doctor Aziz, Sinéad Cusack as Helen (as Sinead Cusack), Jerzy Skolimowski as Stepan, Tatiana Maslany as Tatiana (voice), Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai, Vincent Cassel as Kirill, Armin Mueller-Stahl as Semyon

When it comes to films made by veteran Canadian director, David
Cronenberg, certain promises are expected to be kept. The name promises
something dark and twisted, something gruesome and haunting, something
disturbing and seductive. Cronenberg's latest, EASTERN PROMISES,
certainly makes good on all these accounts and solidifies his new, more
linear but no less disconcerting approach to film-making. Gone are the
days of surreal experiments where fetishists get off on colliding cars
and the ensuing scars or twin gynecologists playing patients for
patsies. Now is the time for the Russian mafia in London to be given a
human touch. No, now Mr. Cronenberg is not so concerned with being
bizarre as he is with being blunt. As with his last masterpiece, A
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, Cronenberg has made PROMISES into a
straightforward story and morality tale, much to the dismay of film
students everywhere. Fear not though, students. Accessibility does not
make Cronenberg irrelevant. If anything, it means that brilliantly
polished stories about the underbelly of humanity can be told without
any unnecessary sentiment, allowing for them to be both provocative and
bloody as all hell.

It rains just as much in Cronenberg's London as it does in the real
London. The rain ushers in the heavy yet steady hand of this director,
whose work always seems to be weighed down by a looming sense of
despair and discomfort. Still, though the viewer is pulled into a world
where cutting the tips off of fingers and slitting throats is just as
normal as a well-balanced breakfast, nothing is so simple as good and
evil as absolutes. Like the sky the rain is falling from, everyone is
surrounded by an ambiguous grey. Naomi Watts plays a mid-wife named
Anna. On one tragic evening, Anna helps to bring a baby into the world
at the expense of the very young, heroine-addicted mother's life. She
does not want to see the child fall into the system as the girl cannot
be identified to find her next of kin so she makes it her mission to
find the girl's family before this can happen. It may all seem noble
but her saintly act also serves to appease the pain she has felt since
the miscarriage of her own child months before. She couldn't save her
baby but she can certainly try to help this one. Her search leads her
directly to the door of the Russian mafia and this is where she meets
Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). At the moment, Nikolai is just the driver
but he's got hopes to one day be part of the real family. He would be
perfect for the job as he is calculated and cold when he needs to be
but then again not so as he also takes the time to encourage the slave
sex- worker he's just been with to find a better life. People are
complicated; Cronenberg knows this and this is what gives EASTERN
PROMISES its depth.

Though regular Cronenberg cinematographer, Peter Suschitzky, guides
EASTERN PROMISES with a tranquil glide that sets the pace as both
unnerving and engrossing, it is Mortensens's performance as an aspiring
mafioso with a nagging sense of compassion that is most memorable and
moving. His face is harsh and guarded behind his dark sunglasses and
beneath his slicked back, immaculately placed hair lies a mystery that
is being heavily protected. His presence is daunting as he steps from a
black town car, dressed to match, from his shoes to his gloves. He is
naturally imposing and his icy composure and unflinching dedication to
his superiors make him frightening without really trying. He is not so
much trying to intimidate others into submission though but rather to
keep them away. Yet there is something about him that inspires those
around him to see a reason to trust him. Perhaps it is his reliability
or perhaps it is just that you know once you meet him that you would
rather have him on your side than on the other. Mortensen, working with
Cronenberg for the second time after his tortured performance in A
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, is transformed and nearly unrecognizable as
Nikolai. And while his character is extremely guarded, he still manages
to find himself in a very naked position before the film's end, in what
is a shocking and exhilarating fight sequence that finds Cronenberg, as
God, going after Nikolai when he is at his most vulnerable. Proving
himself to be a vengeful God, Cronenberg punishes his character for
allowing himself to relax for three seconds to appreciate his success.

The fight sequence is already being heralded as one for the books that
will be talked about for years to come. I have a feeling we will be
hearing just as much talk about Mortensen's performance, Steven
Knight's script and Cronenberg's direction come awards season. After
setting the groundwork with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (which I actually do
prefer over EASTERN PROMISES just because it left me with more on my
mind), the mainstream film community seems finally ready to reward one
of its veteran contributors. If you're going to sell out, I can't
imagine a better way to do it.