Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises is a story with the Russian mob in London at its center.  Naomi Watts stars as Anna, a midwife that delivers a child to a mother that dies during childbirth.  Not wanting the baby to get lost in the foster system, Anna begins a quest to find the next of kin of the unfortunate and unidentified mother. This leads her into dangerous intercourse with the Russian underworld, at which point the story takes to its wheels.

Mob stories always have their commonalities when it comes to honor, code, devotion to family, and ambition.  They also tend to appear to us in the form of the fishbowl that is that world.  This one is different in that we see an outsider finding herself entagled in that world with those who have no scruples when it comes to protecting themselves.  The key Russian undesirables are Nikolai the driver (Viggo Mortensen ),  Kirill the soldier (Vincent Cassel), and Semyon the boss (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Anna is a goldfish in an aquarium full of these prianha.

While we are familiar with these types of characters, and these types of stories, this film does not fall victim to predictability.  As situations and circumstances unfold, angles and motivations begin to take on more clarity as we see deeper into who these people are.  This evolution of our understanding comes from a well constructed script (Steven Knight), and Cronenberg’s direction. 

But what is the core message of the film?  Is it merely an exploration of violence and its place in the lives of underworld types?  Is it finding hope and transcendence in the face of unspeakable danger?  These are the questions I walked away with.  Was the director’s intent to provide us with answers to these questions, or merely pose them?

Eastern Promises is definitely worth the watch, and I do recommend it.

Rating:  7/10

~ by blloydblog on July 27, 2008.