Eastern Promises

UK Release Date. 26 October 2007
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 40 mins
Director. David Cronenberg
Cast. Vincent Cassel, Viggo Mortensen, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Naomi Watts.
Rating. 72%

Review.

Two years after A History Of Violence, David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen reunite for Eastern Promises, a tale of sex trafficking in the nation’s capital through the perspective of a low-level Russian gangster, Nikolai Luzhin (Vigo Mortensen) and a tenacious midwife, Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). In a career that spans five decades with a notable filmography including Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash and Spider, perhaps Cronenberg’s most impressive films come just two years apart. 

When a trafficked, under age, heroin-addicted sex-worker belonging to the infamous Vory V Zakone criminal gang drops dead in a local supermarket, she leaves a baby and a diary behind that incriminates the organisations leader’s son (Vincent Cassell). The film was written by Steven Knight, whose skill at manipulating the narratives of the crime genre has since made him a household name on the back of the BBC Television series Peaky Blinders and SAS Rogue Heroes. 

While Naomi Watts sympathetically embraces a fairly two dimensional character as the midwife who tries to get a diary translated and save the baby - Anna’s more a preachy moral touchstone than a fully developed character - Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal of the cold-hearted and morally ambitious Nikolai is mightily impressive. Every verbal tic and facial expression is completely convincing, and he retains the ability to remain charming no matter what deplorable act he perpetrators. Mortensen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; and if it wasn’t for Daniel Day-Lewis’ exceptional performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, he might have walked away with the top honour. 

As is the case with the majority of David Cronenberg films, violence is key to the film’s success because of how shocking and memorable the representation is. But something that is often overlooked in Eastern Promises is the establishment of a brooding, menacing atmosphere by the eerie voiceover that echoes throughout the film. The voice belongs to Tatiana (Tatiana Maslany). She is the tragic young girl who loses her life during the film’s opening, and a character that determines the rest of the film. Tatiana retells her tragic story, with bright hopes of becoming a dancer in England, before the hideous reality results in her abuse, pregnancy and eventual death.

To many, Eastern Promises is one of Cronenberg’s most accessible and conventional films - a wonderfully well-executed crime drama. To others, the film is  missing the challenging themes, bigger ideas and, dare I say, weirdness of other Cronenberg productions. The violence and body horror in Eastern Promises is watered down, perhaps signifying a natural climax for Cronenberg’s obsession with the subject. From the slashing of a Russian gangster’s throat in the opening scene to the beautifully choreographed fight on the wet tiles of Finsbury Baths, violence is certainly less frequent here than in other Cronenberg films, but no less shocking. 

One could argue that the director has failed to recapture the success of Eastern Promises and A History Of Violence in any of his subsequent work.