Saturday, September 29, 2007
Eastern Promises
“Eastern Promises,” directed by David Cronenberg and starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, is a thought-provoking movie, much along the lines of Cronenber’s earlier “A History of Violence.” London midwife Anna (Watts) stumbles into the world of the Russian mafia when she tries to find relatives of a young woman who has died in childbirth. Her quest takes her to grandfatherly Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) who wants the diary the dead woman left behind. Nikolai (Motensen), who has befriended Semyon’s creepy son, Kirill, and is ordered to get the diary, has his own reasons for inveigling his way into the mob family. There’s a lot of violence in “Eastern Promises,” but violence is an integral part of Cronenber’s story as he clearly demonstrates that it takes evil to fight true evil, that good does not understand evil enough to be a successful adversary. The only weakness in this compelling movie is the vague and, to a degree, unsatisfying conclusion. However, assuming that you can tolerate the violence, I urge you to see “Eastern Promises.” (9/23/07)
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2 comments:
Loved Mortensen's performance. Apparently he went to Russia and interviewed some real bad guys for the role, and scare a restaurant full of Russians in London (with tatoos showing). I thought the story was bit weak, but was more bothered by the unnecessary graphic violence (not the steamroom scene). A hint of throat slashing would have been enough. Not as good as A History of Violence except for Mortensen.
I didn't think the violence was gratuitous; it is necessary to be explicit to build a case about the nature of evil.
And I thought "Eastern Promises" was better than "A History of Violence," where William Heard's acting was too over the top for the tone of the movie.
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