David Cronenberg got a reputation for depicting incredibly realistic violence with his last film A History of Violence, which was his first pairing with action mega-hunk Viggo Mortensen. With Eastern Promises, his newest thriller, the violence is brutal, gut wrenching, and at times too intense for audiences who don’t want to be surprised (one woman in my press screening actually stood up and called out “I can’t stay” during a disturbingly realistic fight-to-the-death between Mortensen’s character Nikolai Luzhin and two Chechnian mafia thugs) by anything that artistically pushes the limits. Eastern Promises reinvents the Russian element in crime stories (remember the Cold War?) in an engrossing and highly entertaining way.


Kirill (Vincent Cassel) threatens Anna (Naomi Watts)
Image(c)Focus Features

The story (written by screenwriter Steve Knight, Dirty, Pretty Things) is about Nikolai Luzhin, deftly portrayed by Mortensen, a somewhat shady character with an ambiguous past (he’s spent time in a Siberian prison) who works as chauffeur for a large Russian crime family living in London. This elite crime syndicate, known as the 'Vory V Zakone', hides its shady dealings behind a family-run Russian Restaurant. The family head Semyon, and his disobedient son Kirill, deal in trafficking prostitutes, drugs, stolen merchandise, and connections with Afghanistan are hinted at.


When a hospital midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) delivers a baby at Trafalgar hospital to a dead, young Ukrainian prostitute, she takes the girl’s diary in order to track down her family and place the orphaned baby where it belongs. The diary is in Russian, but a business card within its pages leads Anna to Semyon and the family restaurant where she becomes unwittingly involved in a large cover-up complete with former KGB agents, Scotland Yard, Russian and Chechnian mafia, and double agents. She becomes particularly enmeshed with Nikolai, who at times carries out random tasks for his unsavory boss. As long as she has the diary, which details all the of the crime family’s doings, she’s in danger. Can she translate it in time to save the newborn child from the hands of the mafia? Can she trust Nikolai, or is she fighting a losing battle against an organization so powerful she could never even imagine how far it stretches? Subplots regarding Watt’s character and Nikolai’s ascension into the mafia hierarchy flesh out the story with gripping intensity.



The mysterious Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen)
Image(c)Focus Features

Cronenberg’s “uncomfortable” visuals rear their artistic little heads all over this film, Eastern Promises is a very involved story and not one of the 100 minutes is uneventful. Wintry London provides a gorgeously drab backdrop for the secret meetings and clandestine dumping of bodies, when everyone hides inside from the rain and the streets are empty. All the meetings are held indoors, away from prying eyes, in smoky rooms of Russian red velvet and vodka. The striking differences between Western culture and the “old ways” of Russia dominate this movie, where a centuries old organization is forced to contend with an increasingly modern world where their customs are considered crimes. Watts is touchingly sincere as Anna, and Mortensen proves he’s a brilliant dramatic actor by creating a character so fully developed that it’s easy to forget he’s not actually the real thing. French actor Vincent Cassell is a weak but intelligently jealous Kirill, perhaps the most complex and enigmatic creation in the entire film.


Eastern Promises breaks some new ground by staying away from cheesy car chases and tacky explosions. There are no cliché characters and standard dialogue like in most Hollywood Blockbuster films. Cronenberg proves one more time that he’s a genius among amateurs when it comes to sending shivers down your spine and making your head spin. This film comes highly recommended for mystery fans eager for something in the theaters that actually makes them think.

In theaters everywhere in the United States on Sept 21, 2007.