Eastern Promises

Wow, what a movie! Eastern Promises, in contrast to its predecessor, manages to make A History Of Violence look like the comic book story it actually was. With his latest foray into gangster styled violence and bloodshed, Cronenberg makes painstaking efforts to have the material come across as realistically as possible.

Whereas AHOV was an idealized fable highlighting the symbolic aspects of how violence affects the nuclear unit in America, Eastern Promises does nearly a 180 degree turnabout to showcase as realistically as possible how an underground mob's legacy is built, supported, and inevitably, as any model of corrupt civilization must do, how it falls; or rather, how it evolves and is passed on to the next generation. Compared to AHOV, there is only a fraction of stylization in this movie - that is, symbolic subtext. To let you in on what that is exactly would amount to a rotten spoiler, so I won't get into that aspect of it. Leave it said that this is a far grittier, bloodier, and more realistic account of events than AHOV, by a long shot.

Viggo Mortensen is perfectly cast in the role of Nikolai. He brings a very tight and focused performance to the big screen that is destined to heap even more accolades upon him. Here is a leading man sure to scramble to the top of the heap in a day when there is no shortage of leading men: Russell Crowe, Clive Owen, Edward Norton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Robert Downey Jr, Benicio Del Toro, Christian Bale, Robert Deniro, Samuel Jackson, Joaquin Phoenix, Ralph Fiennes, Jeff Bridges, Morgan Freeman, Geoffrey Rush, Brad Pitt . . . Viggo could win a staring contest with any one of these powerhouse actors.

Naomi Watts may sort of come across as a one trick pony to some, I mean, it seems as if she plays practically the same role in every movie she's in; but somehow she's got that down pat, and always comes across very likable and convincing, regardless of the movie she's in. Maybe I'm biased because she's incredibly attractive, but once again she turns in a solid performance as Anna, a midwife whose mundane life is injected with danger as she begins investigating a teenager who dies during childbirth in the hospital Anna works at.

Despite its select moments of overt violence, what lends this movie its power is actually its understatements and subtleties. This makes for a nice contrast, lending the film a very finely honed tone.

I personally thought the most amazing performance in the movie went to Armin Mueller-Stahl, who portrayed the elder father of this Russian mob family. What made this performance all the more impressive is how it never once became overstated. Just a glimmer in his eye held enough portent of impending threat to give his character as much chilling weight as any classic Godfather figure from movies in the past; i.e, Mueller-Stahl did not need a bloodied baseball bat, a Mac-10 nor even a single moment of violence to carry across the message that he was not someone to mess with. It was this sort of realism which lent Eastern Promises more weight than your typical "Goodfella's"-type scene, wherein a stylized mobster flexes his power in a sudden burst of physical violence; all Armin Mueller-Stahl had to do was look at you with his grandfatherly mask to get you thinking twice about how to handle him. Some of the movie's most effective moments can be attributed to him, while he spoke and behaved in the most grandfatherly of ways.

All in all I'd have to say Eastern Promises is as solid an adult- themed movie as any thoughtful audience member could wish for. And as always, Cronenberg is masterful in his implementation of cinematography and guiding the actors to create a striking motion picture that truly resonates long after the curtains close.

Be warned, however: Eastern Promises' sequences of violence get pretty gruesome and realistic. I'd even go so far as to suggest the infamous steam room scene may just be eligible for the most realistically staged and bloodiest fight in movie history; definitely not for the squeamish. However, that said, Eastern Promises ends up being surprising for its lack of typical violent-fare, i.e, no dumb car chases, no idiotic gun fights, and no predictable outbursts of typical violence: just pure and realistic mob affairs set to Howard Shore's suitable musical score, and a cast of actors in top notch form.