DVD REVIEW

Eastern Promises

Universal Studios Home Entertainment || R || Dec 23, 2007

Synopsis

Criminal mastermind Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) finds his ties to a notorious crime family shaken when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), a midwife who has accidentally uncovered evidence against them. Their unusual relationship sets off an unstoppable chain of murder, mystery and deception.


Critique

When Tatiana is wheeled into the emergency room and into Anna’s life at the start of Eastern Promises, her condition, as dire as it is, is probably nothing Anna has not seen before: a young mother with just enough left in her to give birth before she dies. The only thing left of her, aside from her baby, is a diary, written in Russian. When Anna’s uncle – who claims to have worked for the KGB – translated the diary, a world of depravity is opened up to Anna that she never knew existed.

Eastern Promises (which sounds like an artful way to say “lies”) is a darkly exhilarating film that presents the Russian mob in a more textured, believable way that has been previously done in film. Typically we see Russian mobsters as deadpan, remorseless killers, the group to be feared above all, unstoppable to everyone but the hero of the film. In a word, they are one-dimensional.

What Cronenberg has done (along with writer Steven Knight, whose input should not be understated) is bring the world of vori v zakone to vivid, unsettling life. There hasn’t been a mafia-centric film with this much color and dimension since Goodfellas. Nikolai, Kirill (the brilliant Vincent Cassel), Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), and the rest of the characters are infused with such a life-is-shit fatalism that they are beyond being characterized as good or bad (which would be relative terms here anyway). Anna (and we) naturally looks at what happened to Tatiana as totally repugnant, but these guys don’t see it that way. It wasn’t good or bad, it was just something that happened.

As Nikolai, Viggo Mortensen is brilliant. One wonders why he wasted his talents on something like the Lord of the Rings trilogy when he obviously has so much more to offer. This is an example of an actor totally committing himself to a role. The fight in the bathhouse alone should put any of those questions to rest. The fight is easily the set piece of the film, and one of the most brutal sequences Cronenberg has ever committed to film.

Even as the plot moves ahead – a plot I would hate to reveal here for anyone who hasn’t seen it – we get more of the hows and whys, but that never settles anything. Nothing is wrapped up. If anything, the characters end up deeper in than they were when the story opened. Of course, the films ends the only way it can, by not ending so much as just stopping. Anna has learned something she cannot unlearn; her life has been colored.

Cronenberg’s early films dealt with conflicting relationships with our own minds and bodies. Look at Max Renn in Videodrome, whose body becomes unrecognizable to him as the film goes on, his mind controlled by television psychiatrist. Scanners follows telekinetic characters, some of whom cannot control their abilities, and the destructive power of those who can.

With his recent work, Cronenberg has expanded his focus from the self to the society, to the society as an extension of ourselves. Anna in Eastern Promises is not so different from Max Renn in Videodrome, except that where Renn’s mind and body became unrecognizable Anna’s whole world becomes so. It’s your body, but it isn’t, and it’s your society, but it isn’t.

One cannot talk about Eastern Promises without mentioning the film’s writer, Steven Knight. Knight seems at home writing about London’s immigrant underbelly. Not only is Eastern Promises well informed (the character of Semyon is based on a man Knight came to know), but it feels like a thematic extension of Dirty Pretty Things, Knight’s previous work. That film is another must-see, a dark story about two hotel workers who struggle the depths of depravity in London, eventually getting caught up in an organ harvesting ring. The mind reels at what Cronenberg might have done with that.


Video

Eastern Promises is presented in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio. The transfer is pristine and the color levels are expertly rendered. The important thing here is the black and white levels, which are solid. So much of the film is set in dark corners of London (indoors and out), and the sharpness never waivers.


Audio

This disc offers tracks in English and French, both in Dolby Digital 5.1. The soundtrack is not overly complicated, but the presentation is excellent. The levels are well balanced, and everything from the music to the dialogue comes through nicely.


Special Features

Secrets and Stories: David Cronenberg, writer Steven Knight and the cast talk about the characters, the film, and the real criminal underworld in which the story is rooted. (10:32)

Marked for Life: Cronenberg, Knight, the film’s tattooist, and Viggo Mortensen talk about the complex language of tattoos and how it came to inform the film. We look at the tattoos Mortensen wears and what they all mean. This piece is very interesting. (6:43)

Cronenberg has done some great commentaries for his other films, and it would be nice to have one here. The two pieces we have are very interesting and informative, but there could be more.


Final Thoughts

Eastern Promises is one of the best films of 2007, and it is the best film David Cronenberg has made in a while. The film brings the underworld of the Russian mafia to vivid life with great writing and great performances. The bonus material is a bit light, but what we have is interesting and informative.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

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Review posted on Jan 9, 2008 | Share this article | Top of Page

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