DVD REVIEW: Eastern Promises

The movie Eastern Promises was one that I missed in theaters but had heard good things about. It was directed by David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Bad Lunch, The Fly, Dead Ringers) and stars Oscar nominees Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.

The movie was in the list of top rated movies released in 2007, and although I saw a lot of the 2007 movies, somehow I missed this one.

After winning an online Oscar prediction contest my prize was a free subscription to Netflix. I had wanted to try the service for awhile so I was excited to discover what my prize was. The first movie that arrived was Eastern Promises.

The movie is interesting. It starts slow, and has a simple plot. Naomi Watts plays an obstetrics nurse named Anna who takes care of a teenaged mother who dies giving birth to a child on Christmas. The mother leaves no identifying information behind except for a mysterious diary written in Russian which (surprise!) Anna's uncle may be able to translate. There's an address in the book which leads Anna to a popular Russian restaurant where she unwittingly runs into the local head of the Russia mafia (played by Armin Muehler-Stahl) and his vicious (and stupid) son played by Vincent Cassell whose driver is played by Viggo Mortensen.

The most amazing scene in the film is the bravura nude fight sequence where Mortensen's character is in a public bath/sauna wearing only a towel and is attacked by two large assassins armed with knives. It's an incredibly choreographed and thrillingly executed sequence which was probably the primary reason why Mortensen received his first Best Actor Academy Award nomination for the film.

Overall, the emotional impact of the film is somewhat deadened by the fact that the chemistry between Watts and Mortensen is infinitesimal and although Watts' character is sympathetic her actions are so non-sensical that the viewer becomes annoyed and emotionally disconnected to the character.

Mortensen is always interesting to watch but the film is less intellectually stimulating than his previous collaboration with Cronenberg, 2005's A History of Violence.

GRADE: B+.