Oct 13 2007
“Eastern Promises” (2007)
Movie Review: Eastern Promises
Directed by: David Cronenberg
Screenplay Written By: Steven Knight
Released (US): September 2007
I’m going to get one thing out of the way right from the get go.
I got into Cronenberg’s movies a little late in the game. I’d heard of the classics that he did but, and I have no REAL reason for this, I haven’t yet gotten around to seeing them. I jumped in at “eXistenZ” and went from there. So my knowledge of his films is seen through a pretty recent frame. I just wanted to let my readers know this tidbit of info, so they know where I’m coming from. I love Cronenberg’s films, but I’m not a guru when it comes to his earlier works. I have every intention of getting caught up on the older stuff, I just need to find the time and proper mood.
That said, when Eastern Promises hit the multiplex nearby, Mel and I took in a Thursday night showing (which is an awesome time to go see movies by the way) and ran over to catch it on the big screen. We were 2 out of 8 patrons sitting in the theater that night, so the showing was somewhat intimate. The lights went down, the screen lit up and we settled in.
The overall story (spoiler free) focuses on a midwife named “Anna” in London (played by the always wonderful Naomi Watts) and her unfortunate encounter with a young mother who dies in her clinic while giving birth. The encounter is unfortunate because for one, her death is pretty suspect, two, she has a diary, and three, said diary implicates her forced ties to a pretty vicious branch of the Russian Mafia. Though this young woman dies giving birth, her baby lives, and it is then that Anna tries to find out if any biological family remains for this infant to live with. She starts by getting the diary translated from Russian to English and these written words take her head long into a situation that she never anticipated. An initially troubling mess gets worse as she unwittingly comes in contact with a russian mob boss and his foot soldiers, running a fully illegal network under the guise of a fully functional family restaurant. But just like this restaurant, not all is as it seems and we, the viewers, are taken down some pretty twisty turns before all is laid bare in front of us.
There has been a lot of buzz about Viggo Mortensen in this movie and the praise is definitely earned, as he’s pretty damn phenomenal in this. Playing the driver/henchman “Nikolai” for a Russian mafia boss, the role is short on dialogue, but make no mistake, Viggo nails this role to the floor. Cold, calculated, and ruthless, constantly dance in his eyes in this film, yet it’s obvious (to me anyways) that he’s hiding secrets. It’s an outstanding role for him, and if you liked him in Cronenberg’s last film, “A History of Violence” then you will absolutely love him in this.
But he’s definitely not alone.
Every actor tapped to take a part in this film, did exceptional work here. Aside from Watts and Mortensen, you get an absolutely outstanding performance from Armin Mueller-Stahl who plays “Semyon”, the incredibly unnerving head of the Russian mafia branch in London. I can tell you right now, as wonderful as everyone was in this film, he was, hands down, my favorite character in the entire film. He’s got this kind, gentle vibe going on, on the surface, but you know from the first frame he’s in, that he’s got the blood of a caged beast in him. Seriously. He just owns every scene he’s in. Just a joy to watch.
So! We’ve got good acting and though I could, I won’t wast time on how every scene in this film is shot perfectly and is just beautiful up on the big screen. It would seem that this would be a favorite for my top ten this year?
Sadly no…
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a film that blows all aspects of film making out of the water but fails with the screenplay. Everything about this movie simply excels except the story itself. The whole arc of the film is uneven in parts and, at times, simply doesn’t make any sense. It’s definitely a brain scramble for me! Because what’s there is outstanding. Each written scene crosses the screen superbly! But when you string it all together it comes across like the production ran out of money, or the screenplay just simply wasn’t all that. The film itself was unbelievably short by today’s standards (clocking in at a mere hour and 40 minutes) and Mel and I both couldn’t help but feel that when the DVD hits store shelves, there will be this unedited 3 hour version of the film that will help flesh everything out a little bit more.It definitely wasn’t a waste of time or 18 bucks, but, in the end during the drive home, it did expose itself as a bit of let down; definitely not adding up to the over all sum of it’s parts.
No doubt, if you get out to see this, you’ll be treated to some truly memorable moments.
But moments, unfortunately, don’t make an exceptional film. Or at least they don’t make “Eastern Promises” as good as it could be, and frankly, deserves to be.
