Spring Break
Promises kept in new mob movie
Luke Soin
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Features
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The film follows Anna Khitrova, a London midwife played by Naomi Watts, who discovers a diary in the purse of a young woman who has just died giving birth to a baby girl. In an effort to find the rest of the baby's family, she tries to decipher the diary, written in Russian.
She finds herself in the presence of Eastern European mobsters who belong to the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood.
Their boss is the charming but ruthless Semyon, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl. His son Kirill, played by Vincent Cassel, is a bumbling and cocky disappointment to his father. Kirill spends a lot of his time with the driver, Nikolai Luzhin, played by Viggo Mortensen, who is seemingly a much better heir to the criminal throne and has the fatherly respect of Semyon.
As Anna gets closer to unraveling the secrets of the diary, she also gets closer to uncovering dangerous secrets that could destroy the criminal brotherhood itself.
To put it simply, Cronenberg has done it again. Following the gritty violence of 2005's "A History of Violence," "Eastern Promises" delivers a visceral cinematic experience that leaves nothing to the imagination.
All violence aside, it is a good story and a well-paced thriller. However, the violence is graphic.
We see not one, but two slit necks, and the most brutal bathhouse brawl ever to be shown on screen. Cronenberg goes all out when he makes a movie, and he demands the same from his actors, especially Mortensen.
It can't be easy to bare it all on the big screen, but Mortensen does just that. He's the unlucky target in that bathhouse scene.
Still, if you think about actors striving to be vulnerable to emote well, this takes that concept to another level. Armed with nothing more than a bath towel around his waist, Mortensen's Nikolai must fend off two big Russians hell-bent on making sure this is his last trip to the steam room.
I was surprised to see Mortensen go all out like this, but the role demands it and he is a great actor who does his job.
But there's more to his performance than just being naked.
His Russian accent is not bad and he has some powerful scenes with Watts and Mueller-Stahl, always showing he can be tough and thug-like, but also displaying warmth and kindness, especially in a scene with a prostitute.
Watts does well; she shows adequate love and caring in scenes with the baby, but it's nothing special just because the role is mostly a static one. Her character isn't evil or psychotic or mysterious so there isn't a lot for her to work with.
Mueller-Stahl is excellent as the crime family's head. In scenes at his restaurant, we see a kind, old man happily entertaining his patrons, but when he is talking business or reprimanding his son, he is a hard, evil person who wouldn't think twice about shooting someone for disrespecting him.
Cassel is easily unlikable as the nasty drunk and sex-obsessed black sheep son, but it's a role we've seen before in various other incarnations. Movies like "Sin City" (Nick Stahl's Yellow Bastard) and "Gladiator" (Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus) have already given us the unworthy evil son.
Overall, "Eastern Promises" is a violent and ruthless underworld thriller. The acting and directing is superb and Steven Knight's script is great. If Mortensen and Cronenberg team up again, it won't be bad.
I'm giving this movie four out of five stars. Go see it instead of "Resident Evil: Extinction," which will not be nearly as smart or engrossing.
Luke Soin can be reached at lsoin@statehornet.com
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