Eastern Promises
Directed by: David Cronenberg.
Writing by: Steven Knight.
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassell, Armin Mueller-Stahl.
This is a film about the ancient tradition of organized crime. This time it's the Russian mafia in London, and in particular one family headed by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl).
I had a problem with the fact that there were no 'real Russians' in this film. I felt ripped off, discomforted with traces of 'black face', and dissatisfied with what appeared to be a theatrical artifice.
However this film sticks; blood, body, 'tooth and claw', that Cronenberg brand of physicality. Mortenson's portrayal of a Slavic warrior is riveting, even more powerful because he is not that. His body posturing is overt; theatrical artifice, which I now applaud. He displays both refined nobility and an audacious fearlessness. He is able to clip a dead man's fingers as he would fingernails, and to repair a damsel's motor cycle with equal ease. He is both the Prince of Darkness and the Shining Light.
The Cronenberg-Mortenson collaboration, which begun in The History of Violence has flourished. Mortensen executes direction with skillful precision; his body a canvas, on which to play the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) renounces his Father to declare allegiance and kneel before the brotherhood. He is the son that the wild and homophobic Kirill (Vincent Cassell) is not. It is in his driving and tending for Kirill that Nikolai is able to display his mettle and to rise in the hierarchy.
In his relationship with Anna (Naomi Watts) Nikolai softens. She is the child of an earlier Russian migration which settled quietly into its host country to become the good and ordinary folk. Anna, in her work as a midwife, has stumbled upon Kirill's sin. A young Russian girl has died while giving birth, leaving a diary that details the marketing of human flesh. Anna's sense of righteousness leads her straight to the lion's den.
Lou Crow
