Eastern Promises: Review By Josh

Eastern Promises is a complex morality tale crafted in so twisted a fashion it could only have come from David Cronenberg. In a film reminiscent of The Godfather, Cronenberg weaves a blistering commentary on violence, loyalty, masculine excess, and morality weaved into a nuanced psychological thriller, and there's nary a moment of wasted screen time. It's difficult to watch, and punctuated with shocking bursts of Cronenberg's trademark extreme violence, and each of these moments is saying something about the characters it depicts. The film delves deep into the underworld of criminal society comprised of the types of people we pray we never meet; it shakes us up by realizing these people as ultimately human, yet fraught with inhuman tendancies. While Anna (Naomi Watts ) can rightfully be called the film's protagonist, the film really revolves around the fractured moral compass of Nikolai (Viggo "don't-call-me-Aragorn" Mortensen in an Oscar-worthy role). And it makes for incredible filmmaking. Spot-on supporting performances from Vincent Cassell and Armin Mueller-Stahl serve to breathe life into the characters that Cronenberg regulates with such care within the world he creates, which resembles our own a little too closely for comfort. And that's why the movie works; much like 2005's A History of Violence (the previous collaboration between Mortensen and Cronenberg), there's too much truth in the violent excess to make for a film that's anything less than undeniably powerful. One of the year's best.