| EASTERN PROMISES |
 2007 - USADirector: David Cronenberg
- Reviewed by Jennifer
In typical Cronenberg fashion, Eastern Promises is unflinching in its realism, and it wastes no time in throwing down the gauntlet. When a pregnant teenager arrives in the emergency room, a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) rushes to her aid. The poor girl is bleeding heavily and there are track marks up her arms, but Anna and the ER team manage to save her baby. The young woman dies on the table, and the only hope of identifying her is a diary written in Russian. Otherwise, the baby will enter the foster care system and likely never get out. Anna, who is living with her mother after suffering a miscarriage and breaking up with her boyfriend, is particularly keen on looking out for the orphaned baby. She asks her Russian uncle to translate, but he blows her off and warns her not to get involved. Not realizing why she shouldn't get involved, Anna pursues the matter on her own. A business card tucked in the diary leads her to a nearby restaurant, where she is welcomed by a genial older man named Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). He spoons a sip of borscht into her mouth as though he's known her all her life, and kindly offers to do the translation. Though there are some seedy characters lurking about, Anna has no idea that she's walked right into the lion's den. As it turns out, Semyon is the ringleader of a mighty shady operation which dabbles in human trafficking (among other things), and he had a direct role in the young girl's demise. In fact, his role is so stunningly significant that it almost makes you want to scream. Just knowing that Anna has connected herself to this horrifying underworld creates enough tension to carry the movie. The whole rest of the film could be picnics and musical numbers, and the entire time you'd just be thinking "Oh crap. Oh crap. He knows that she knows. What are they going to do to her?" Of course, picnics and musical numbers do not ensue. As Anna becomes increasingly entangled in the baby's fate, she is forced to deal with Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who serves as a driver and an undertaker (think removal of fingernails and teeth, plus body disposal) to Semyon. Though he seems to think Anna is pretty cute, he's still a terrifying figure, and you can never tell if he's going to kill you or buy you an ice cream. Worse yet, we see all the things Anna doesn't see—like the time Semyon's son forces Nikolai to have sex with a young prostitute (i.e. slave) to prove his heterosexuality. We're spared no details, so Nikolai is even more frightening to the audience than he is to Anna. It's not until the final act of the movie that we learn whether or not he can be trusted. By that point you're practically exhausted, and the film's happy ending leaves you fairly gobsmacked. "Really?! It all turned out?! I can't believe it!" What makes the movie so brilliant is that Anna is just an ordinary woman. Her run-in with the mafia could happen to any of us, and the outcome would be just as tenuous. It's the human element that propels the story - not the violence or the nudity. Speaking of which, the notorious nude fight scene is hardly the selling point of the film, and I doubt you'll be moved to watch it in slow motion. If I was reminded of The Lord of the Rings at all, it wasn't Aragorn's hotness that came to mind, but Gollum. Yes, Gollum. You just don't see people crawling around and engaging in knife fights without clothes on, but you do see Gollum doing those sorts of things, and it ain't pretty. As long as you're not looking for eye candy, you're in for a compelling, almost poetic, ride. |
| Home | Currently Playing | For Rent | Video Obsession ©2008 Moviepie e-mail us |
If there's one thing I love about Viggo Mortensen, it's that he's all about giving the people what they want...on his terms. I'm sure there are scads of fans who would like to see him naked, but every time he goes full frontal, it's in a rather distressing context, as if to say, "You can see everything, but it's not going to be hot, and I'm going to make you work for it." He did it in
