Of Promised Lands and Broken Promises. Review on Eastern Promises Movie

By my side he still stands, And holding my hands, he leads me to my PROMISED LAND (By **MDK)

Desperation may lead to vulnerability and exploitation, sometimes by one's very own. In Eastern Promises, director David Cronenberg narrates the story of a young Ukrainian girl, Tatania, who under dire circumstances, ended up in London - her promised land .

Shot on location in London, Cronenberg sporadically uses the technique of voice over through out the film without getting into classic flashback sequences. With the help of a taut script by Steven Knight, Cronenberg introduces the concept of vory v zakone (family of thieves and criminals bound by their set of rules) and takes the audience on a whirlwind trip through the deep, dark world of Russian mafia.

In effect, Cronenberg follows two complimentary storylines, which run parallel and gives the narrative a fantastic thriller aspect. He’s used the character of Anna (Naomi Watts) a second generation Russian based in London, (an outsider to the Russian underworld), and simultaneously brings into playNikolai (Viggo Mortensen) his main protagonist (largely an insider to the Russian underworld) whose identity is kept furtive. Every once in a while though, Cronenberg keeps dropping clues keeping the viewers at the edge of their seats.

Cronenberg sets the tone of his film within the first couple of scenes itself. On a dark wintry evening, the camera pans through a largely immigrant neighborhood in London in the backdrop of heavy rain. A young Turkish lad makes his way through the rain into a barber’s shop run by a Turk. Inside, a barber is working on his last customer of the day (a heavily tattooed, seemingly well to do Russian). As the young lad nervously walks in, the barber and his customer seem to be indulged in small talk. In an instant, the barber turns around at the lad, yells at him and hands him a razor. The nervous boy flicks open the razor and slashes the customer’s throat. The man screams and is soon lying in a pool of blood.

Elsewhere at a drug store near by a bare-footed, unkempt young East European girl, soaked in rain requests an Indian chemist working there for ‘Methadone’. He asks for a prescription, and is startled to see blood trickling down her legs. Within moments, she faints. As she is wheeled on a trolley at a hospital, she is accompanied by the paramedics and midwife Anna (Naomi Watts). She is soon operated upon, and delivers a baby girl, but the doctors are unable to save her. In order to determine the girl's dentity, Anna rummages through the contents of her bag and finds a business card from a Russian restaurant, and a tattered diary. A tired Anna holds on to the diary and the business card and heads back home in her motorcycle.

To find help translating the diary, Anna goes to the restaurant, and meets the owner, an elderly Russian gentleman Seymon (Armin Mueller-Stah) who after initial hesitation, takes to her in a fatherly manner. But, she soon discovers that nothing is what it seems and realizes that the plush restaurant is just a cover up. It is also the first time in the film that Cronenberg introduces the audience to the inscrutable character of Nikolai, who seemingly is "just the driver’"for the family, portrayed brilliantly by Viggo Mortensen.

Who is Nikolai? What is the significance of tattoos in Vor V Zakone? To what extent is Nikolai’s involvement in Vor V Zakone? Who are the other players in the ‘family’? Does Anna succeed in her quest to determine the true identity of Tatania? What happens to Tatania’s daughter?

Cronenberg deftly puts each piece of this jigsaw puzzle together for the audience and in a way lures the audience to participate with him in doing so. The characters are well developed and many of the scenes are brilliantly executed. Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ serieshas given one of his career best performances as the cold, stoic yet tender Nikolai anddeserved thenomination for the Best actor Oscar award. He is well-supported by a brilliant supporting cast. Of particular mention are French actor Vincent Cassel who plays Kirill, Seymon’s son, a fairly complicated character as the alcoholic, gay, unconfident guy in awe of Nikolai, and in some ways in love with him.Armin Mueller-Stahl as Seymon has tried hard NOT to emulate a ‘Don Corleone’ like persona similar to that of Marlon Brando in ‘The God Father’, which is inimitable. He has succeeded to a large extent and is enormously helped by the script, which has tried to give him a highly intimidating, ruthless yet somewhat soft character. Nonetheless, in many ways, watching this film did bring back memories of ‘The God Father’ (particularly the family scenes) and Cronenberg’s own ‘History of Violence’, which again had Viggo Mortensen as the main protagonist.Naomi Watts is good, but her character gets somewhat sidelined gradually as the plot thickens and focuses more on Nikolai’s character. The chemistry between her and Mortensen is shown beautifully. In particular toward the climax, the ‘near yet far’ sentiment is beautifully conveyed.

This is certainly not a film for the weak hearted or children and some of the scenes are down right graphic/ barbaric and make you cringe. Regardless, it makes audiences like me awestruck by a director. The only drawback if you may want to call it that, I felt is that the ending was a bit abrupt, but a part of me thinks that may be Cronenberg wanted to leave room for a sequel. Some of the memorable scenes from the film include: (a) Nikolai’s interview and initiation into Vor v Zakone. The use of the camera angles by Cronenberg here, as he scans through the tattoos on Mortensen’s entire body and his expressions there in are stupendous. (b) There are many action sequences, but the action sequence shot in the midst of sauna in a health club that may be deemed infamous by some due to the nudity and bloodbath is superbly choreographed. (c) The scene when a man kept frozen in a freezer, is thawed out with a hairdryer, and his frosty fingers are chopped off sends chills through one’s spine.

In summary, I feel after ‘The Fly’ this is one of David Cronenberg’s best works so far. A superbly shot dark, and comprehensive look into deception, intimidation, threat and isolation associated with the Russian underworld. For being a gangster film, it is unique that there are no guns or deafening gunshots used, but the brutality is conveyed through the use of knives and superb portrayal by the cold, calculative characters. Editing by Sanders is near flawless and cinematographerPeter Suschitzky has lit the shots perfectly whether it is the indoor stunning restaurant sequences (also helped by superb art direction) or the outdoor night sequences, which added to the sinister nature of the characters. Overall, a superbly crafted film indeed, a must watch for film lovers of this genre.