Eastern Promises Reviews

Racial Stereotypes

Poorly directed and unprofessional film which lacks basic background knowledge about Eastern Europe. The cast is inappropriate and unconvincing and the plot is shallow and predictable. All characters are grotesque stereotypes whose sole purpose seems to be to convince viewers from the western world that everybody in Eastern Europe is either a gangster, a pimp, a racist, a homophobe or a prostitute. In an age in which racial stereotypes are frowned upon in all developed societies I find this unacceptable.

The film's secret weapon of attracting audiences is violence and nudity...The fact that British viewers reacted to it so positively is disappointing and worrying.

As a film student, I have seen numerous contemporary features from all over the world, yet this one is undoubtedly one of the worst.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Who are you people?

At the time of writing this has a 75% rating!?!? It is utterly, utterly terrible. Please, do not waste your time with this predictable yarn of a film.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Eastern Promises

There are few directors working whose films you can look at and almost immediately say “so and so directed this”. David Cronenberg is one of the few. His preoccupations have stayed strong throughout his career and his long history of working with the same collaborators film after film gives his work a distinctive look and feel.

Eastern Promises, like A History of Violence before it doesn’t look, at first glance, particularly Cronenbergian yet scratch the rather generic surface and you’ll find a film that is not just unmistakably David Cronenberg’s work but one that is unmistakably some of his best work.

When a young Russian girl dies giving birth Anna (Watts), the midwife who attended her, takes her diary in order to try and find the child’s family. To get it translated she goes to Seymon (Armin Mueller Stahl) who, unknown to Anna, is high up in London’s Russian mafia. When it becomes clear that the diary contains things that Seymon doesn’t want to come out about himself and his son Kiril (Cassel) he sets Nikolai (Mortenson), Kiril’s ‘driver’ the task of cleaning up the mess.

Eastern Promises story is not particularly original and the film goes to places that other gangster films have visited before but it is in the telling that the film excels.

The film sucks us in with expert performances from all concerned. Mortenson, who acts in impeccably Russian accented English, Russian and Ukrainian in the course of the film, spent a long time preparing to play Nikolai, spending time touring Russia alone to pick up the language and researching vory v zakone. This hard work pays off and he conveys great menace by delivering a quiet performance that only briefly erupts into violence. Importantly he also makes

Nikolai seem human, a deal more morally complex than a simple gangster.

Naomi Watts draws on her British heritage (she was born in Shoreham in Kent and lived in England until she was seven) and gives Anna a note perfect accent; neither too clipped nor a cor blimey cockney cliché. She gives a strong performance as a woman who, wanting to do the right thing, finds herself way out of her depth. There’s nothing showy here, she’s not courting awards, it’s simple, solid, character acting.

Perhaps best of all among the cast is Armin Mueller Stahl who seems at first to be a benevolent character but Stahl chills the bone as he is revealed as being more and more vile as the film runs on. Like Mortenson he’s never over the top, and the performance and the film are all the more effective for that. Look for Stahl’s name among next years Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominees.

David Cronenberg has long been fascinated by the body and by violence and though these preoccupations are more dialed back than in, say, eXistenZ or Dead Ringers they contribute some of Eastern Promises most memorable moments. The violence is largely brief, but it is impactful for that. The brutal slit throat in the first scene establishes immediately that we are not dealing, in the vory v zakone, with anti-heroes but it is an attempt on Nikolai’s life that proves most memorable. The two on one fight takes place in a sauna, which means that Mortenson does the whole 4 minute sequence stark naked. Forget the shaky cam mess, which rendered The Bourne Ultimatum’s fights an exercise in motion sickness, Cronenberg keeps his cutting under control and lets the fight play out at almost excruciating lengths. This is punchy, painful looking stuff and should go down as one of the finest, and one of the more unusual, fights in cinema.

Eastern Promises isn’t quite perfect though. The ending seems a bit rushed, as if Cronenberg was required to deliver a film of a certain length (it’s 95 minutes minus credits) and there’s a moment about 5 minutes from the end which felt massively and irritatingly contrived. However these are very minor gripes about what is a major work from a great filmmaker and if you are even remotely interested in cinema you really should see Eastern Promises.

Dreadful

Viggo Mortensen makes a valiant attempt to salvage an otherwise dreadful film. Unfortunately, even his layered character (the only character with any depth, and even that is diminished during an uncompelling twist) can't save Eastern Promises from the truly abysmal script, stereotypical caricatures, performances that are all either camp or plain lazy and an absurd and generally quite uninteresting plot. To top it off, there are occasional moments of gore that are both absurd and totally uncharacteristic of the rest of the film. Miss this.

The Russian Godfather

In Cronenburg's first film made outside his native Canada, this story of the Russian mafia in London is on a par with The Godfather. Viggo Mortensen is unforgettable in the role of 'just a driver' with a secret or three. Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel strongly play London-based Russian descendents who have chosen very different paths. This story of ambition, white slavery, and family vices and virtues, chills, -leaving you stunned and wanting more. The few scenes of graphic violence are cold and stomach-turning but don't detract from a fine cast, good script, beautifully shot. Well worthy of being the opening film for the 51st London Film Festival. Don't miss it.

[Highly rated reviewer]

cronenbergs feature focusing on the slave sex trade in london is gruesome

cronenberg has gone from strength to strength from the dark body horror science fiction epics of the fly, videodrome and scanners to the internal psychological horror of dead zone, spider and a history of violence, he constantly shows the mental will effect the physical body and vice versa. i have never seen a bad cronenberg film and i hope i never will, this one revolves around a young mother dying in child birth who is used as a sex slave and her diary falls into the hands of midwife, naomi watts. watts' character wants to find the girls family as the baby is left behind so she meets the unknown driver mortensens character who gets rid of dead bodies for the Vory V Zakone who are Russian mafia types. Viggo's character is going up in the crime world and must prove himself to the boss. watts needs to get the diary translated but unfortunately goes to the boss who is responsible for the young mother being used in the sex trade. viggo's character protects the crime bosses son vincent cassel who is in his best role since irreversible. This film is very grim but all the more real focusing on the dark part of London the hidden part not seen in the hollywood pretty version seen in Notting Hill and the Love Actually worlds but more intune to the London to Brighton, Shane Meadows terrortory. The film is brutal as its the criminal world, lots of respect must be shown an eye for an eye and families must be respected but at times its quite pitiful the son Kirill, cassel's character is like a child constantly bullied by his father never doing the right thing and with this he becomes more psychotic, violent but not a complete villain as he plays with children. viggo is fantastic as the soldier type tattoos covering him but not defining him and who he is but he is a survivor. this film would make a great double bill with History of Violence as they are alike but very different the narration by the dead 14year old mother speaking volumes as to what is at stake and what she has left behind in her diary, this adds a great weight to the film and makes you realise what is going on is really happening in many cities and if only more could be done.a brilliant and dark tale that has had much thought and good ideas put into it.

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[Highly rated reviewer]

Promises,but doesn't deliver

Having watched 'Spider' and 'History of Violence'-Cronenberbg's two most recent films,

I have to say I came to this one with some trepidation.Those two films seemed to be the start of a trend for the director,where he takes us into a very recognisable world,with familiar situations,but then wraps it all up in script chockful of cliches and stereotypes,leavened with the expected Cronenberg violence.

This sadly is no exception.The film deals with Russian gangsters based in London and

sex-traffic slavery,all stuff done to death(and more convincingly) on Channel 4 many moons ago.Unlikelyhoods are stacked on top of improbabilities,characters do things at drop of a hat that they wouldn't have done ten minutes previously.The violence arrives at

regular intervals,but simply doesn't have the same impact of Cronenberg's early work-it seems gratuitous,pointless even.To top it all off the gangsters in this,as they were in 'History of Violence' are all cardboard cut-out villiains strutting around the real London.

If you saw someone dressed like the Viggo Mortensen character swanning around a real city you'd be more likely to laugh at him than be intimadated.The acting is ok,and Naomi Watt's and Mortensen do their best with the cliche-ridden script. Wait till it's on Film4.

Dissappointing.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Ignore polar reviews!

Just watched this and enjoyed it a lot. Decent drama, let down by at times comical Russian accents. The rest of the reviews are somewhat depressing.

A lot of people give it 1 or 0 stars, purely based on bad accents. You get around this quite quickly. Others dock it points for gore - well it's an 18 rated movie based around Russian gangsters, so again what do you expect??!!

Whilst it isn't up there with Cronenberg's best, this easily fills 2 hours without clock-watching setting in, and at times was rivetting viewing. Mortensen, Cassel and Watts put in decent if not stellar performances, and the supporting cast do a decent job with limited characterisation to play with.

Well worth a watch, but only if you can tolerate a little bit of blood!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Rubbish

I gave this film 10minutes and then ejected it!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Eastern Promises

A very disturbing incite into the hard,ruthless nature of russian mafia infiltration into urban western europe.

Edgy,treacherous very engaging.......deadly serious.....the fight scene in the local turkish,not to be missed.

Thought provoking, a very good yarn.