Eastern Promises Movie Review

MOVIE REVIEW: EASTERN PROMISES

09/18/07

I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse . . . if you like the Godfather/mafia/organized crime type movies, I offer you Eastern Promises. Now kiss my hand and go see the movie when it comes out. But first, let me tell you a little more about it. The movie was good, not as ground-breaking or star-studded as The Godfather, but good nonetheless. It was a good story with good performances, especially from Viggo Mortensen. It had the just the right amount of suspense, thrills, and drama to balance each other out. At well under 2 hours long, it was efficient and effective, something that is hard to do in modern cinema, especially in this genre.

It’s all about a cell of the Russian mafia in London, headed by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and fronted by a restaurant. A very young Russian girl skips town in search of a better, more exciting life in Western Europe, specifically London. Lured into Semyon’s world through his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), she is held captive, raped, and impregnated. As she goes into labor in very bad shape, she somehow escapes and is taken to a hospital. This is where Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts) gets entangled in the situation. Anna is a midwife who helps deliver the baby and pronounces the death of the mother. She is determined to find whatever family this baby might have. A business card that the mother had on her leads Anna to the restaurant where not only does she meet Semyon and Kirill, she also meets Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). He is the driver, hit man, clean up guy, and bodyguard for the organization. A strange connection is formed between them as he tries to do his duty and she skeptically tries to find the link between the mother and child and these people . . . and the plot thickens.

The characters in this movie are quite stereotypical but the performances were not. Each of the actors were compelling in their roles but two of them really stood out. Armin as the “Godfather” figure was very impressive. He ranges everywhere from sweet, older, mild-mannered restaurant owner to ruthless, cold-blooded, cold-hearted mob boss with no remorse. He was convincing and genuine. Viggo did an even better job with his role. His performance was as smooth and sharp as his character. So was his accent. You can see how well he portrays this mysterious character who is struggling internally to find his purpose. There is a scene in the film that takes place in a steam room involving Nikolai that will make you squirm in your seat. By the way, this is a bloody movie, not like the British bloody but more like the American bloody as in a lot of blood in the movie. Shockingly, unless my memory fails me, there is little to no gun play in this movie. These guys seem to have a thing for knives and heavy slicing, thus the blood. Take this into consideration if you get queasy easily. After all, this is a violent story and some of it is right in your face. Speaking of in your face, the look and feel of this picture were as you would expect . . . cold, wet, overcast, and gloomy. London was an appropriate location for this tale to take place.

The Oscar buzz can be heard around this project, be it with Viggo’s performance, with the movie itself or both. We shall see. Director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence) teamed up once again with Viggo to successfully demonstrate how people’s lives are turned upside down when exposed to the mafia. Viggo’s character Nikolai says it well . . . “Forget any of this happened. Stay away from people like me.” I’ll add to that . . . but you go see movie, Da???