Eastern Promises

DETAILS:

Released - 26 October 2007
Certificate - 18
Running Time - 96mins
Director - David Cronenberg

Screenwriter - Steven Knight
Producers - Robert Lantos, Paul Webster
Cinematography - Peter Suschitzky

Editing - Ronald Sanders
Music - Howard Shore
Theatrical distributor - Pathé
Country - UK /Canada/ USA

Awards - Oscar nomination for Viggo Mortensen as best leading actor, BAFTA nomination for best British film and Viggo Mortensen and British Independent Film Award win for Viggo Mortensen as well as many various nominations

SYNOPSIS:

One night at work, London based midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) delivers a baby from the arms of a dying Russian teenager. Due to the suspicious cause of her death and the imminent threat of the baby being sent to an orphanage, Anna takes it upon herself to find the girl’s immediate family. With the only clues that lie on her dead person are a Restaurant business card and a diary written in Russian, Anna is led to Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and his family. After visiting the family a few times Anna soon grows close to the families ‘driver’ Nikoli (Viggo Mortensen). However, when her Russian uncle Stephan translates the dead woman’s diary it soon becomes apparent that this seemingly harmless Russian family are actually prominent figures in a Russian Mafia organisation; the Vory. All is not what it seems as Anna is sucked into an underworld of grim violence, where vengeful bloodshed and human trafficking are common practice.

REVIEW:

Director David Cronenberg is infamous for his controversial subject matter. Despite the low budgeted and unrealistic settings of his earlier work, it has always been the humanism of the main characters which made his films so engaging. Whether it is the touching deterioration of a human fly or a group of sex obsessed car crash fanatics it is their emotional portrait which touches the viewer. In 2006, Cronenberg scrapped his typical unrealistic settings for A History of Violence. Here he explored what lies beneath the surface and the consequences of an underworld of violence meeting with peaceful normality. Whereas Cronenberg’s first collaboration with Mortensen dealt with the American mob clashing with white picket fence suburbia, their second attempts to delve deeper into the psyche of the apparently charming Russian Vory in the city of London.

It is somewhat refreshing to have a British gangster film without fast talking Guy Richie cockneys. Screenwriter Stephen Knight has found an existing Russian subculture fit with a legacy and an attention to detail that Scorsese wishes he would have found first. But this is where the originality ends. What Eastern Promises lacks is any emotional realism. Our attention is briefly drawn to the problem of sex trafficking but Knight’s script never really delves beneath the immediate surface. All we learn is that the Russian mafia is simply full of bad, raping, killing homophobes, it is that simple.

Whereas Cronenberg is known for the emotional depth and originality of his characters, Eastern Promises is merely full of stereotypes. Vincent Cassel’s attempts to portray the Joe Pesci tearaway gangster are laughable. His overacting makes his character about as terrifying as a rebellious fourteen year old rather than a supposedly menacing gangster who could snap at any minute. It makes no sense for the skulking Mortensen to be intimidated and ordered around by him, you half expect Mortensen to just turn around and flatten his annoying face. Similarly Watts and her family are so sickly ‘normal’ and perfect they never actually appear to be truly threatened or scared with their situation. Maybe this is because Mueller-Stahl’s niceness in no way appears threatening anyway. For all the problems with the casting it appears everyone’s hackneyed attempts at Russian accents is the only requirement to portray evil.

But what Eastern Promises desires the most is a gripping edge. The film feels incomplete without any real character development. Constantly waiting for something to happen, the events happily plod along with no real urge of progression about them. This Subsequently provokes no real shock to the so-called plot twists. Unlike Cronenberg’s previous work Eastern Promises needs to learn the meaning of ambiguity. It is too obvious with its morals and sentiment. Where A History of Violence raised questions about the use of violence in our society, Eastern Promises spoon feeds the audience with the message that killing and supporting sex slave labour is obviously wrong!

However, the collaboration of Cronenberg’s direction mixed with Mortensen’s acting adds a certain integrity to the film. Viggo has certainly absorbed himself into the role of a Russian gangster. With his big face, chiselled jaw and a body covered in tattoos his mere presence fills the screen. He proves his acting talent as his facial expressions speak volumes. His charisma oozes with an undercurrent of threat as he coolly cuts off a dead mans fingers and stubs out a cigarette on his own tongue. This is perfectly combined with Cronenberg’s direction. The sauna fighting scene finale has a very intense feel about it and the chilling scene of Mortensen raping a prostitute to the exerts of the dead woman’s diary is very close to the bone.

TO SUM UP:

Eastern Promises is certainly not without its iconic moments, but it will forever be remembered as the inferior sequel to A History of Violence.