Eastern Promises Review

I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about "Eastern Promises" after watching it in theatres recently. It wasn't until I was driving home that my eternally perceptive girlfriend summed it up perfectly — the characters (mostly) got what they wanted, but it wasn't a happy ending.

Director David Cronenberg and star Viggo Mortensen's solid follow up to "A History of Violence" is one of "those" movies — the kind with a semi-ambiguous ending that you appreciate more if think enough of it to ponder what you just saw after the credits roll.

The story is set in London where a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) comes upon a diary belonging to a young Russian woman who dies shortly after childbirth. Since the diary is written in Russian, Anna sets about having its contents translated to find out who the girl was. As a result, she runs across members of the Russian mafia, including reliable driver/low-level soldier Nikolai (Mortensen), screw up son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), and patriarch Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl).

I don't want to give away much more of the plot (which you have to pay attention to, to follow) because there are one or two twists as characters secrets are revealed and blood is spilled.

Man is the blood spilled! As in "History" there are two or three scenes of brutally graphic violence, including an extended sequence with a naked Nikolai fighting for his life. Erica asked me what I thought of Viggo Mortensen in the movie, and I don't think she was talking about his acting.

Which is too bad because I thought he was pretty great. With a slick shock of a hairdo and impressive physical presence (well, mostly impressive, right Erica?), Mortensen conveys a ton with just his mannerisms, posture and glances, which is great because the director fills a lot of his scenes with unspoken tension. He also hints at his character's softer side without doing anything to overt or resorting to anything showy in his acting.

Equally as good are Cassel (doing his best Fredo impersonation), who displays petulance, fear and, yes, charisma equally as well. Then there's Mueller-Stahl who gives his character a thoroughly convincing charming veneer that make his more sinister moments more effective. It's early but I think Mueller-Stahl and Mortensen are Oscar worthy.

Watts was pretty good (as she always is), but I didn't think she was given as much to do as the other actors. Still her scenes at her humble home (especially with a scene-stealing Jerzi Skolimowski as her old-school Russian/overtly racist uncle Stepan) were effective and provided a good contrast to the high-living, flashy mobsters.

That's another thing I liked about the movie — the way it presented such a sinister group of human beings (the Russian Mafia) as just simply being a part of regular life in a regular place. The boss's main office, for example, looked like any other restaurant in any other major city. Also, it was good to see a different breed of mobsters on screen — after this film and "The Departed"s Irish characters, it's clear Italian mobsters are just played out.

The movie does drag a bit at times and Cronenberg's directorial style can be off-putting in the way he sometimes seems to purposely coax performances out of his actors that seem a bit off. Also, sometimes I wasn't entirely sure what was happening in the story while I was watching the movie, but that's mostly because I'm not very bright.

This is an interesting movie and a good kickoff to the fall season, when Hollywood unleashes it's "serious" Oscar fare. Here's hoping I see Mortensen and Mueller-Stahl's name around awards time.

Eastern Promises...B+