Eastern Promises

(2007)

Dir; David Cronenberg

When Cronenberg hit the 1990s, he got serious. Now he’s getting really serious. Thankfully, he’s David Cronenberg.

With Eastern Promises, we get the tale of Naomi Watts’ midwife Anna, who, after finding the diary of a late patient, searches for the true family of the deceased’s offspring. Unfortunately, this quest leads Anna into the nefarious company of Russian gangsters Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen, collectively known as the vory v zakone ("thieves in law").

Cronenberg is the most visceral director ever. This is not Crash or The Fly, the grotesquery is not obvious. Nor is it Dead Ringers or Scanners, covert in its disturbance. Eastern Promises continues the same skin-biting thrill of the brilliant A History of Violence from 2005. The flesh is just as fragile; bodies are littered with tattoos and carved by scars in such a way that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

The violence in the film highlights Cronenberg’s mastery of the blood. One scene in particular, as Mortensen’s de-clothed Nikolai battles two burly Chechens in a Turkish bath house. The scene feels like an insane merging of the Morpheus versus Smith showdown from The Matrix, The Bourne Ultimatum’s bathroom brawl, and the disturbing rape scene from Mysterious Skin. It is bitingly real, yet filled with intense passion. It is almost, dare I say, a sex scene.

Mortensen is the standout. The comparisons to De Niro are accurate. Not only is he starting to resemble Bob, but his quiet, intense presence pervades every inch. Like History’s Tom, Nikolai is at heart a peaceful man trying to repress his inner monster. And Mortensen conveys all this from behind shades.

One of the best films of 2007 and joins History as one of the triumphs of the decade; Eastern Promises shows that even at the ripe old age of 67, Cronenberg is still the freshest voice in cinema.

**** ¼ / *****

“Be amazed, be very amazed.”