Rated: R
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent Cassel, and Naomi Watts
Directed By: David Cronenberg

• Official Site

Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl give chilling performances in Eastern Promises, a European Mafia film. The excellent acting in the sordid tale, coupled with David Cronenberg"s weird sense of reality, gives a shocking look at the brutal lives of a criminal brotherhood. But a word of caution—this film is not geared for those with a weak disposition.

{mosgoogle right}Anna (Watts), a mid-wife at a London hospital, witnesses the traumatic birth of a baby and the death of its teenage prostitute mother. Traumatized over the situation, and left with the diary of the young girl, she tries to find the nearest of kin.

A clue inside the diary leads her to Semyon (Mueller-Stahl), the head of a Russian gang called Vory V. Zakone, a vicious criminal society. She acknowledges to him that she has the diary of the dead girl in her possession. During the meeting she meets Nikolai (Mortensen), a Russian-born Mafia driver who is taken by the lovely Anna. When Anna refuses to turn over the diary to Semyon, Nikolai becomes her only hope for survival.

Although the film has a thin plot, its strengths lie in the directing, acting and cinematography. It’s the kind of film that won't garner a huge box-office pay off, but will be sought out for awards as evidenced by it taking the top award at the Toronto Film Festival last week.

The close-ups are many, giving you the impression that you are in the room with the characters as they live their distasteful lives. With this technique, Director Cronenberg (A History of Violence) uses every bit of the actor’s facial expressions and body movements to show the degradation of the sick society in which they belong. He pulls no punches. Cronenberg’s most violent scene in the movie takes place in a public steam bath where a fight breaks out between Nikolai and his attackers. Naked and bleeding, the camera moves with the fighting to a bone-crushing finale.

Viggo Mortensen gets the most screen play, but Vincent Cassel, as Kirill, provides the best insight into the sick society. Kirill is the son of the Mafia boss, and Cassel produces a very dangerous image of the homicidal hit man.

On the downside, the Russian accents did distract me during some scenes. In some instances I found myself trying to understand what the actor had said only to realize I was missing the current dialogue on the screen. Although this does present a problem, it doesn’t ruin the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good film with quality acting, directing and cinematography for mature adults that do not have difficulty with brutality.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."