Eastern Promises

Starring: Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack Directed By: David Cronenberg

Written by: Steven Knight

Directed by: David Cronenberg

Distributor: Focus Features

Rated: R

Most people who know nothing else about the Russian Mafia know it is one of the most savage and dangerous criminal organizations in the world. Director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Naked Lunch) brings the shadowy Bratva into focus in the thoroughly entertaining thriller Eastern Promises.

Naomi Watts (21 Grams, I Heart Huckabees) stars as Anna – a London midwife who delivers a baby for an anonymous Russian girl. Tragically, the girl dies in childbirth, leaving behind a healthy newborn daughter and a mysterious diary. Anna enlists the aide of a charming Russian restaurant owner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to help translate it, whom we soon find out is actually the head of the local Russian mob family. The contents of the diary would compromise the local Russian mob in the hands of the authorities, making Anna the center of some very dangerous men’s attention, including the mob boss’s son (Vincent Cassel) and his newest associate (Viggo Mortensen).

Watts is admirable as a heroine whose compassion for an orphaned infant comes across with vivid emotional impact. Mortensen is suitably mysterious as the new guy who must prove himself by taking an interest in Anna and her family, and dazzling in an exquisitely brutal fight scene in a public bathhouse. Cronenberg captures the viciousness of the knife fight in a way that is tastefully overwhelming without glorifying the deed or rendering it as some obscene ballet.

The use of Russian in Eastern Promises is a little distracting. Characters often say simple phrases in Russian and then repeat them in English. While this is probably fun for first year Russian students, it’s difficult to imagine anyone actually talking this way. Eastern Promises’s handling of language in general feels inconsistent, further complicated by the fact that the most interesting Russian character in the film is played by a Frenchman. Vincent Cassel’s Russian accent occasionally fades out, allowing his native Parisian lilt to slip through. This is perfectly forgivable, though, in light of his otherwise incredible performance. Initially we see him as disgusting, but gradually he proves to be profoundly vulnerable. Cassel is one of the most talented and charismatic screen actors working in any country, but as his character is largely tangential to the central plot, this will likely be yet another underrated performance.

Eastern Promises is not a terribly deep film, nor do its 96 minutes contain many surprises. There are, however, sufficient visceral and emotional thrills steeped in a plot complex enough to be truly entertaining. Dead moments crop up, but just as they start to bore us they are whisked away in the film’s otherwise brilliantly-paced rush across the screen. VS