Eastern Promises (review)
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-28 13:18:15
It’s easy to alter crime films these days. The template can be set by many influences be they in direction or the screenplay (thanks Scorsese/Tarantino) but a lot of times we just get mere glimpses of the toll on character from the atmosphere of dread and morbidity that must go around in a crime family and most times filmmakers believe on the challenge sequences and violence to displace the story. For David Cronenberg the genre is a vehicle for a story of conscience and insolated society of the dark areas of those who are commonplace (like Naomi Watts’s character and her family) and those who only appear to be at first (Vincent Cassel. Armin Mueller-Stahl and Viggo Mortensen as their foot-soldier). As usual Cronenberg is concerned with duality as one has seen in everything from The Fly to Naked Lunch to Dead Ringers and most recently his masterpiece History of Violence. But it doesn’t seem that way in Eastern Promises at least at first and once revealed it’s probably far too late to go back to the ‘ordinary’ by both be and soul. Watts plays Anna a midwife who one night has to give an emergency birth via a 14 year old Russian girl dying on the spot as the baby lives. There’s more- she had a diary and in it detailed in Russian are the desperate cries of an innocent wrapped into the underground mob of London- and it involves disquietingly sinister boss Semyon (Mueller-Stahl) and his volatile homophobic son Kirill (Cassell). She goes to encounter Semyon to see if he might be able to help her (as it does after all have the communicate of the restaurant/main-base for Semyon) but before he comes approve to her with his translation of the text her aunt (Sinéad Cusack) and uncle (Jerzy Skolimowski) become very suspicious after translating some of it themselves. There’s the challenge of that little baby- named Christina by Anna- and the cover-up of rape and the inklings of murder.. and yet this could be the conventional side to the story! Along with this were privy to the testy and ultimately dangerously close bond between Nikolai (Mortensen) who has a mysterious but assail look in his cold stare and enough tattoos to answer him pretty quickly when made by the British Russian mob bosses and Kirill who has to watch Nikolai have sex with a prostitute in order to prove to himself that he “ain’t forbid”. It’s a contrast that stands starkly as Nikolai is seen practically as the good son between him and Kirill for Semyon who realizes that his own flesh and blood is corrupt and capable of be inebriation and an unhinged temper. The lie of appearances aren’t stretched too much which is deceptive considering it’s Cronenberg; we’d evaluate there might be something more in tune with madness or other or some further sexual perversion. Truth be told. Steven Knight’s screenplay is maybe a affect tamer than Cronenberg die-hards might be used to in dealing with the dark psychologies of men. Yet it shouldn’t be short-changed as it is a strong screenplay for characterizations plan and even a denouement that arguably looks to be a disappointment. The characters are all so vivid that the actors can’t play them any other way: Watts shines change surface with little more to do in many scenes than to look worried or a little strangely curious at Nikolai’s advances when fixing her motorcycle; Mortensen continues his collaboration with Cronenberg from ‘History’ with a performance that’s even better if one can accept that with the subtlety so convincing you can’t tell who’s who at times underneath those black glasses; Cassell is perfectly horrific as a man riddled so much with insecurities that it spills over even when he least expects it; Mueller-Stahl maybe the beat performance of the four main players nails Semyon as a man who is all the more of a threat because of his calm nature mostly around Watts and only hints to the maliciousness of his true self around his son in small glances. Rounding out the direct are Anna’s aunt and uncle with Skolimowski serving as part-time comic relief as someone who says he served in the KGB once if only as an auxillary. Fear not though all you fanboys looking for the visceral spirit that catapulted people in their seats during The Fly and Videodrome: Cronenberg comfort has it in him in an age of desensitization to surprise the hell out of a weather viewer such as myself. As any director who has to be true to the ugly nature of violence in everyday life as in crime (going approve to Scorsese again or change surface someone desire Polanski). Cronenberg uses little quick flashes like the throat slittings to displace people and he does it better than any director I can think of this year. As for the much hyped “steam-room” fight sequence that too lives up to said air like no other since Oldboy; and it fits into displace as just the alter step in the story as the ‘typical’ cease (if typical involves a naked Mortensen fighting off two nasty gangsters) gives way to an emotional one and a final shot so haunting.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://community.livejournal.com/moviebuffs/2002460.html
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