A man getting a haircut has his throat slit and a teenager hemorrhages as she gives birth. While the first five minutes of the film are intense, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises is to Russian mob movies what Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums is to the family comedy: the emphasis is on character development, not genre tropes.
The film tells the story of Anna (Naomi Watts), a midwife, who tries to track down the family of the dead teenager’s orphaned baby. She finds a diary in the dead mother’s purse revealing the events that lead up to the first scene and her connections to the Russian mob, which includes the leader, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), and the mysterious Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen).
Anna’s fixation with the baby is rooted in a significant event of her past. Semyon is heartless and cruel, revealed by the secrets of the diary. Nikolai is the only one who seems to have a moral attachment to society, though his violent outbursts convey a darker side to his character.
The film centers on Nikolai, the loyal bodyguard/chauffeur, and his journey to becoming part of the Russian mob. Among the film’s strong points is its achievement in character depth: actions are never entirely predictable. Nikolai is one of the only people Anna can trust, but in one jarring scene, he coolly cuts off fingers and detaches teeth.
The acting on the whole is phenomenal, with the exception of Watts, who fulfills her job without any stellar moments. Mortenson does an amazing job conveying the deep but erratic Nikolai, and Cassel is exceptional in portraying an utterly detestable character.
While the film is as bloody as Cronenberg’s earlier works, there is no gratuitous violence for the sake of gore. Violent scenes emphasize the dirty underground lifestyle of the mob, where innocent people and enemies are naked and fighting. The bloody clashes are realistic rather than heroic; in one scene in a steam room, Nikolai fights two people and barely gets out alive. The dark cinematography underscores the treacherous plot, but contributes a visually stunning element amidst brutality.
Cronenberg’s latest film since A History of Violence is proof that his artistic eye and storytelling abilities are still maturing, even with plenty of films under his belt. The performances, the twists, the dark cinematography and the set plot all come together to create a film that does not delve into the life of the mob as much as it reveals the depth of human emotions in life-threatening situations.
