Morgan BellREVIEW: Eastern Promises
April 12th 2008 16:05
Directed: David Cronenberg (A History Of Violence, The Dead Zone, The Fly)
Written: Steven Knight (Amazing Grace, Dirty Pretty Things)
Starring: Viggo Mortenson (A History Of Violence, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder, Lord Of The Rings), Naomi Watts (King Kong, The Ring, Mulholland Drive), Vincent Cassel (Birthday Girl, Elizabeth, Derailed)
There are quite a few good reasons to watch this . . . Viggos russian gangster tattoos, they cover half his body and are very impressive . . . a nude fight scene, well actually Viggos the only one nude, everyone else is fully dressed, but Viggo is nude and clambering around a slippery communal bathroom, the violence is brutal but we get a closer look at those impressive tattoos and many full-frontal (and crouched, and horizontal, and from behind) shots of Viggos nude body . . . also this is Viggos critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated performance, and personally i think he deserves the praise! "Eastern Promises" is set inAmerica England but most of the characters are relocated Russian mafia, the story is about the sex-slave trade of women (early teen girls) who flee the poverty of their homelands in the hope of better lives in the USA the West, only to be enslaved in prositution and drug-addiction at the hands of their fellow ex-pats. The story is basically a suspense thriller following the search for a babys family, the search begins in the opening scenes when a 14 year old girl bleeds to death giving birth to a baby in a public hospital . . . Naomi Watts is the midwife from the hospital who discovers a diary written in Russian with a business card for a Russian restaurant in the girls possessions . . . in her attempts to uncover the babys family the midwife becomes embroiled in a murderous and perverse web of organised crime . . . very young girls are systematically raped and forced to be injected with heroin, it is a disturbing underworld, and there are power struggles for the top position. This film uses voice-over of the babys young mother reading from her diary to describe the experience of coming to America England from the female sex-slaves point of view, it contrasts this with the point of view of Nikolai (Viggo) who is trying to manipulate his way up the mafia food chain by being affectionate buddies with the bosses son (Cassel), disposing of bodies, going through initiations, and being "the driver" . . . Viggo is cold and calculating, he seems quite dead inside, a man of little words, but with an intriguing sympathy and respect for women that none of the other Russians in the boys-club possess . . . this film is grim, the violence is bloody, the abuse is despicable, the expoitation is sad, the truth is hard . . .
* i had mistakenly presumed this was set in America as most films seem to be, but it is actually London, England, as postmoderncritic points out in the comments below . . . oops, sorry
Written: Steven Knight (Amazing Grace, Dirty Pretty Things)
Starring: Viggo Mortenson (A History Of Violence, G.I. Jane, A Perfect Murder, Lord Of The Rings), Naomi Watts (King Kong, The Ring, Mulholland Drive), Vincent Cassel (Birthday Girl, Elizabeth, Derailed)
There are quite a few good reasons to watch this . . . Viggos russian gangster tattoos, they cover half his body and are very impressive . . . a nude fight scene, well actually Viggos the only one nude, everyone else is fully dressed, but Viggo is nude and clambering around a slippery communal bathroom, the violence is brutal but we get a closer look at those impressive tattoos and many full-frontal (and crouched, and horizontal, and from behind) shots of Viggos nude body . . . also this is Viggos critically acclaimed and Oscar nominated performance, and personally i think he deserves the praise! "Eastern Promises" is set in
* i had mistakenly presumed this was set in America as most films seem to be, but it is actually London, England, as postmoderncritic points out in the comments below . . . oops, sorry
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Comment by Irene
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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yes i agree with you about the plot, it had a weak attempt at putting a twist in but essentially you would watch this for the performances and for a peak into the lifestyle of the russian underbelly . . .
haha why IS vincent cassel always a baddie? he does it so well! perhaps its because he has an accent and we dont trust foreigners? i think hes french but somehow that translated to russian perfectly! i wonder if hes played a good guy somewhere and ive missed it?
thanks for stopping by and commenting
Comment by postmoderncritic
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I can see how you got the impression the film was set in America, but it was actually set in (and shot entirely on location in) London, England. If you remember, Semyon names the city in denouncing it as being full of 'whores and queers'.
Vincent Cassel had reservations about playing another "baddie"-type character, but the opportunity to work with David Cronenberg was too hard to resist for him.
I agree the plot is not exactly unpredictable, but I think this movie works successfully as a character study first and foremost.
Love the pic of Viggo there...
Comment by Morgan Bell
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haha i thought you might like the pic of viggo
* i crossed out the references to America in the original post and corrected them to say England, thank god someones got their eye on the ball (or the viggo haha)
Comment by postmoderncritic
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I like the pic because a) Hey, it's Viggo bare-chested! Can't go wrong there... and b) because it's always amusing when you see a person casually sitting around whilst being adorned by nasty-looking wounds!