Eastern Promises

Cold Greatness

It was not with an early film nor an internet blogger’s mention that I stumbled across David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES. I did not see it in theaters or read about it afterwards. Rather, I came to discover EASTERN PROMISES at the beginning of a trek towards an interest in cinema. In 2007, I began to watch many films: classified by watching as many in a month as the average person does in a year. Beside EASTERN PROMISES in 2007 I discovered BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and the list could go on and on.

The film itself tells of a driver named Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) who is working his way up in the mob. He keeps himself in close quarters with the boss’s son Kiril (Vincent Cassel), who is a lesser evil in contrast to his father. It turns out that one of the mob’s whores escaped and gave birth to a son. Dying in childbirth, the son is discovered by a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts). Along with the son, Anna inherits the dead prostitute’s diary. It is, however, fully in Russian and she is unable to read it. She seeks out a fluent speaker, but ends up finding that speaker in the mob boss himself. Recognizing the implications the diary could have, he panics, and Anna, her family, and the infant are all put into danger. Meanwhile, Nikolai works his way deviously up the ladder. He is stoic but brutally tough, while maintaining a cleansing, protective watch over Anna.

There are more plot points, but why clutter the summary with them. What truly occurs in EASTERN PROMISES is a union of Cronenberg’s deft, bilious direction, and the cold, smartness of Viggo Mortensen’s performance. It works perfectly in EASTERN PROMISES; creating half revelations and half pleasures that both hint to an underlying madness within.

The only Cronenberg film I had seen before EASTERN PROMISES was THE FLY. I didn’t even know he directed it until quite a while afterwards. I never liked THE FLY, but now, after seeing most of Cronenberg’s work, why EASTERN PROMISES continues to resonate with me is a looming question. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is probably the better film, but the clean coldness of EASTERN PROMISES and its near perfection are almost shunted away by the film itself. Many find it hard to embrace Cronenberg’s lugubrious films, but I desire to embrace this one, despite its refusal to allow that.
Eastern Promises: ★★★★