Review of Eastern Promises (2007) by Richard P — 24 Jul 2010
I've been reading my Flixster friends' reviews of this and I'm surprised at how many have given it a low rating. The gist of the criticism seems to be that Eastern Promises is a) not a 'proper' Cronenberg movie, and b) is somewhat formulaic/predictable.
In answer to the first charge, I would say that no other director has explored a single theme (body horror) so thoroughly - producing a body of work of such consistent high quality - as David Cronenberg has over the past 40 years.
If the guy wanted to make nothing but romantic comedies for the remainder of his career, I would be happy for him to do so - he's earned it. As for the predictability thing, it just isn't true.
One of the most effective ways of concealing a plot twist is to dangle something fairly obvious in front of the audience so that it becomes the focus of our attention, allowing the director to outflank us while we're patting ourselves on the back.
This is precisely what Cronenberg is doing with Eastern Promises, which actually contains a couple of splendid, expertly concealed surprises.
This review of Eastern Promises (2007) was written by Richard P on 24 Jul 2010.
Eastern Promises has generally received very positive reviews.
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