Review of Eastern Promises (2007) by Tyson P — 11 Jun 2010

This is a well acted, well crafted and well made phycological thriller and drama.

David Cronenberg has always had a fasination with the unsual, strange and dark side of human nature. With films such as Naked lunch(1991), Crash(1996) and the more recent A history of violence(2005) Cronenberg has established himself as a constantly reliable directer.

Here he makes another great movie revolving around the Russian mafia in London and a diary that incrimiantes them. A 14 year old girl is raped and is pregenant, she dies during child birth, but she has a diary where she as written about what happened to her.

Viggo mortensen gives his best perfomance as Nikolai, a driver who works for the russian mob, but his not just a simple driver as he keeps saying, he actually has a mysterious element to him. Mortensen more than deserves his Oscar nomination for his perfomance, he really commands the screen and captures the audiences attention throughout.

In supporting roles, Naomi watts is very good as Ann, the doctor that witnesses the pregenant girls death and takes her diary. Vincent cassel is also excellent as the boss's son Kirill, who is wants to take over from his domianting father, who is played fantstically by the very experineced actor Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is most notably remembered as the over protected father in Shine(1996).

David croneneberg doesnt drag the audience to chose one side over the other he lets you observe whats happeneing and make your own judegements.

This is Croneneberg and Mortesens second collabration since A history of violence, which also had a similar idea with violence and the psycological reactions that people have to events. They make a good team and I hope they keep making more movies together, I look forward to their next film.