Review of Eastern Promises

Dude, didn't you make Dead Ringers?

Dang, I haven't been watching much of anything lately. I blame "higher education." It's the worst. I recommend no one pursue advanced degrees. They are expensive and cost you any semblance of a life. ANYWAY, in my unending pursuit of watching films that everyone else watched months or years ago, I did recently check out David Cronenberg's latest film Eastern Promises. Viggo Mortensen was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Russian mobster Nikolai, and with good reason. He does a terrfic job. Charming and threatening. In any other year this performance would probably have garnered him a lot more attention, but. . . well. . . it's no Daniel Plainview. Naomi Watts is Anna, a nurse in London who becomes involved with Nikolai's syndicate after a young Russian teenager dies and leaves behind a infant in her hospital. Every scene involving Anna is essentially a set-up for the far more interesting storyline involving Nikolai's struggles and movement up the ranks in the Russian mob. I would have been perfectly happy for her storyline to be done away with and have the actual mob material fleshed out further. Eastern Promises is a good movie. It has a brisk pace and some interesting characters. The deeper glances into Russian mob culture are terrific, but there aren't near enough of them. It isn't a great movie. Through the length of it I couldn't help but repeatedly thinking, "David, you have made far better movies than this. Why isn't this one thousand times weirder?!" Cronenberg makes decent movies when he plays it straight, but he makes incredible movies when he freaks out. Aaron. whatsaninternet.blogspot.com

Posted on 02/28/08 by: Aaron 09:13 PM