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Eastern Promises (2007)
Director: David Cronenberg
Synopsis
David Cronenberg re-teams with his ‘History of Violence’ star Viggo Mortensen for this London-set tale of the Russian Mafia, revolving around the sex trade. Extensive location shooting has included Hackney’s Broadway Market and the old Middlesex Hospital.
Movie review
From Time Out New York
If you found A History of Violence just the slightest bit square (it was based on a comic book, after all), know that Canada’s most lovable creep is knee-deep in strange again. David Cronenberg will always be the director of fleshy body portals, strangled accents from weird foreign locales and the notion that merging with cars might be cool. His new movie unfurls in London’s contemporary Russian underworld, but it’s lensed with such exquisite precision—and a nose for borscht-scented eeriness—that it might as well be set in Bizarristan.
Into this realm zooms Naomi Watts on a motorbike, which makes more sense if you recall her ability to navigate the murky environs of Mulholland Drive. Watts plays a lonely single nurse who works the late shift and sleeps in. One night she saves a stabbed prostitute’s baby but not the mother; naturally, she’s compelled to investigate and that leads her, via some pungent plotting (courtesy of Dirty Pretty Things’ Steven Knight), into the car of quiet gangster Viggo Mortensen, who may be covering for his overlord (Armin Mueller-Stahl) or that man’s deranged son, Kirill (Cassel).
A note about these gangsters, especially the transformed Mortensen, hair slicked back and voice thick with impeccable Ukrainian slyness: Their bodies are covered with scary tattoos signifying rank (more of the old-school Cronenberg). Instantly we worry about poor Naomi, tough as she is. Those promises of the title might have to do with the religious overtones of the baby story, but I suspect they’re really a threat. How wonderful to see a dangerous director back in black.
Author: Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out New York Issue 624: September 13–19, 2007
User reviews of this film
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- Nath said...
- Posted on Aug 06 2008 15:17 Excellent Film!! viggo mortensen is brilliant!
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- Alison C said...
- Posted on Oct 20 2007 05:00 Eastern Promises took top billing at the BFI London Film Festival for very good reasons. A gritty tale set in a London not often shown on the big screen and with a robust cast to deliver scenes of passion together with some trademark David Cronenberg art-house gore. There's something for everyone in this film: blood, beatings and underground tales, a dirty bedroom scene, a lesson in love and morality and Viggo Mortensen naked.
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- Ulices Hernandez said...
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Posted on Sep 22 2007 02:34
I just got home, from this movie, guys what a great film!!!!
Super acting, very moving part that touched me professionally as a nurse, any of you will be disappointed, the money is worthy million times...
I would love to see it again. - Report as inappropriate
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- NJJOANY said...
- Posted on Sep 17 2007 19:58 Saw movie, Cronenberg & Screenwriter, Knight at the director's Guild Theater in NYC on 9/13/07. Audience was amazingly still until the end when everyone errupted in applause. Of course it's violent but the acting is surperb; the casting is flawless & the direction is great. I would have liked a little more at the end to answer a few more questions. but all in all, it should be nominated for an Academy Award for sure.
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Cast & crew
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinéad Cusack full cast
Rated: R
Duration: 100 mins
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