Eastern Promises (2007)

Eastern Promises (2007)
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: Steven Knight
The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon, whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill, who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father. But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives - including his own - hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.
'First off I must confess to being a life long fan of Cronenbergs so the views given in this comment may sway a little in the great man's favour. You know when he’s a film due it’s going to be one of the treats of the cinema going year, oddly though I went in with a touch of dread with it being a crime thriller knowing even if I do enjoy the film as I did with his last History Of Violence I’d be secretly wishing for him to make a return to his more familiar genres of horror & fantasy headfuck films. Anyway as expected I loved Eastern Promises even though it’s slightly left of center as far as your standard studio crime thrillers go, for Cronenberg it was pretty much by the book and without a question his most accessible film since his hit science fiction horror The Fly. Eastern Promises is also notable as being the first film he's shot entirely outside of Canada. Set in London though slightly reminiscent of the Richard Burton film Villain, it’s a London we’ve not seen on screen before choosing to base itself around the bars, restaurants, saunas and prostitute dens of the migrant Russian mafia the film looks almost like it was shot in the 1960s than 2000's. It starts with a young badly bleeding and clearly beaten pregnant woman being rushed into an hospital to give birth, she dies though the baby lives we later find out her name was Tatiana. With having no English form of ID she’s unable to be recognized though she has with her a diary in Russian, on duty nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) takes the diary knowing her uncle Stepan (well played by Jerzy Skolimowsk) will be able to make some sense and hopefully find out who the poor girl was. This leads to a local Russian restaurant run by mob boss Semyon (again superbly played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) who alongside son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and driver/thug Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) run the local Russian crime scene. These 3 central characters are all played to perfection, really is one thing we’ve got used to over the years by Cronenberg are his strong male leads. Anyway back to the plot as Anna slowly gets the diary translated (done in the voice over of the dead girl Tatiana) she unearths more about the extent of how bad Tatiana was treated. I won’t destroy any of the surprises but as expected the film as its share of brutal scenes , the plots pretty simplistic really it’s the attention to detail and mood the film carries that really lift it above most modern crime dramas. Oddly though I was left feeling a bit deflated at the ending everything fit into place, but the last 10 minutes felt like they’d run out of funds and forced to give what they had filmed some resolve instead of the well crafted ending it deserved. This has sparked a lot of debate on the possibility of a sequel or continuation on the characters. All said and done though it was a great movie Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel turned in magnificent performances. As with all Cronenbergs films its highly recommended and comes with a cultDB sticker of approval on.'

(8½ out of 10)