Eastern Promises

****

10/21/07
by Scott Cupper

Anna……………………...Naomi Watts
Nikola……………………Viggo Mortenson
Semyon…………………...Armin Mueller-Stahl
Kirill………………………Vincent Cassel

Directed by David Cronenberg
Written by Steven Knight

Rater R
Runtime: 1 hr 40 min


Eastern Promises is set in London, but the subject is the vory v zakone or the Russian mob. It begins with that favorite fluid of Cronenberg’s: blood. We see two scenes. First, an Eastern European man enters a barbershop. His intention is to get a haircut. Instead, he has his throat slit. Then, a 14-year-old, Russian girl who is pregnant enters a pharmacy. She is bleeding on the floor. Slowly, the connection between these scenes is revealed.

The girl from the pharmacy, Tatiana, is brought to a hospital. The baby is saved, but Tatiana passes away during childbirth. Anna (Naomi Watts) is a midwife at the hospital and is on duty when Tatiana comes in. She finds a diary on the girl. This personal touch, the death of the girl, and the orphaned child lead Anna to search for Tatiana’s home and hopefully a home for the child.

Anna is English and can’t read the diary which is written in Russian, but she finds a card for a restaurant, Trans-Siberian, in the diary. There she meets the owner of the restaurant, Semyon. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays Semyon with just enough kindness and grandfatherly touch to make us uncomfortable.

Outside of the restaurant she meets two other Russians. We learn that they are Kirill (Vincent Cassel), Semyon’s son, and Nikolai (Viggo Mortenson). Everyone refers to Nikolai as the driver. But when we see his method of disposing bodies, we know that he’s much more than that. And so, what begins as a good deed eventually involves Anna and those close to her with the Russian mob.

Eastern Promises works on a number of levels. It is a beautifully structured story written by Steven Knight who wrote the equally fluid screenplay for Dirty Pretty Things. The actors are all excellent and the script asks some complex moral questions. But it is not beyond the voyeuristic thrill that is inherent in all organized crime movies, particularly when the subject is less familiar to us. As one might suspect, the Russian mob is dourer than its Italian counterpart. Its signature is that tattoos tell where you’ve been, and there’s a great scene where a group of men tell Nikolai his life story as he sits in his boxers.

You have probably heard about the fight scene that takes place in a bath house. The choreography is brutal and it is shot well, but if this is all you’ve read about it, avoid all other notices. Several reviewers have said that this fight scene has set a benchmark in fight scenes. It is true.

David Cronenberg apparently has asked reviewers not to reveal the plot. I didn’t get this memo (not on that circulation list yet), but I feel I’ve obliged him. I believe that Cronenberg’s concern is with the big plot twist that comes three-quarters of the way into the movie. I was certainly surprised, but at first it felt hollow. I accepted it, however, because Cronenberg had earned my trust. My trust was rewarded in the final scene. It hinges on who holds what information and the choices people make. The surprise makes it a richer scene. And a richer movie.