Review of Eastern Promises (2007) by Quinn B — 26 Jul 2011

THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!

David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen team up for another film. This time it has better acting, better story line, better dialog, and is all around the better of the two. The performance Mortensen gives is truly unforgettable. Now after watching A History Of Violence I was enthralled to get to this. And after checking out the trailer, I immediately went out and bought this. One of the best decisions I have made when it comes to movies.

Eastern Promises starts off with a 14 year old girl giving birth. Once the procedure is done, the baby survives but the girl does not. A mid wife named Anna (Watts) finds the girls diary, unfortunately it is all in Russian. It turns out she has evidence on the king of a Russian mob. Once they are aware of this, they do everything in their power to get this diary away from her. Nikolai (Mortensen) is the driver, and is basically the guy that has to clean up the mess. He is trusted in getting the diary back, but once he knows what is enclosed in it, which side will he be on?

Now the scene in the sauna where Mortensen fights off 2 Russians, was one of the best fight scene's in awhile. That scene was probably my favourite of the movie, not only because it was awesome! But also because it was clever.

Just knowing that Mortensen is not Russian, is unbelievable, his accent was top notch perfection. Another notable actor is Vincent Cassell, who plays Kirill, Nikolai's "boss", and "best friend".

Eastern Promises isn't a full throttle mob movie, with a whole bunch of killing, although there is quite a bit. But it focuses more on the story of Nikolai and Anna. And what a story it is!

A film that honestly should not be missed. One of my favourite films of all time, and up there with mob classics such as Goodfellas and The Departed.

My rating for Eastern Promises is.

100%.