Eastern Promises
I fully intended to watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford last night, only to discover it's only playing downtown at the moment. So, I opted instead to check out Eastern Promises.
Set in London, a young labour ward nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) keeps the diary of a young Russian woman who died while giving birth, in the hopes that, once translated, it would provide information about her family so they could come and take care of the deceased girl's newborn baby daughter. What Anna doesn't realize is that the dead Russian girl has some ties with very dangerous people. An old Russian restaurant owner, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), and his son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel) at first seem to genuinely want to help Anna, until she discovers they want the diary, and its secrets, destroyed. Furthermore, the dark and mysterious Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who works for Semyon and his son, also seems to want to get his hands on the girl's diary.
David Cronenberg is a fantastic director. He creates a genuinely gritty and eerie atmosphere to recreate the Russian mafia community in the slums of London. The opening five minutes alone is a perfect example of the stark and realistic violence of these lords of the underworld. The story is intriguing and the film itself can be almost uncomfortable in it's violent brutality. The cast is superb, especially the magnetic Viggo Mortensen. He never runs, he barely walks. He just seems to stand there, in his sunglasses, watching what is going on around him. His Russian accent is so perfect I forgot I was watching an actor. He's both mysterious and chilling and it makes for one of the best performances of 2007.
FOUR STARS (out of five)
Set in London, a young labour ward nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) keeps the diary of a young Russian woman who died while giving birth, in the hopes that, once translated, it would provide information about her family so they could come and take care of the deceased girl's newborn baby daughter. What Anna doesn't realize is that the dead Russian girl has some ties with very dangerous people. An old Russian restaurant owner, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), and his son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel) at first seem to genuinely want to help Anna, until she discovers they want the diary, and its secrets, destroyed. Furthermore, the dark and mysterious Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who works for Semyon and his son, also seems to want to get his hands on the girl's diary.
David Cronenberg is a fantastic director. He creates a genuinely gritty and eerie atmosphere to recreate the Russian mafia community in the slums of London. The opening five minutes alone is a perfect example of the stark and realistic violence of these lords of the underworld. The story is intriguing and the film itself can be almost uncomfortable in it's violent brutality. The cast is superb, especially the magnetic Viggo Mortensen. He never runs, he barely walks. He just seems to stand there, in his sunglasses, watching what is going on around him. His Russian accent is so perfect I forgot I was watching an actor. He's both mysterious and chilling and it makes for one of the best performances of 2007.
FOUR STARS (out of five)