Not really a full review, as there are two very different takes on the main site already, but if you will allow me to get all quote-whorish—EASTERN PROMISES, EASTERN DELIVERS! (heh, I’m a dork!)
Simply put: WOW. Do they make textured drama/thriller/gangster pictures better than this one? Every scene, every shot was rich with layers of sins of the fathers, family, and difficult choices of the new blood. I cannot think of a film that goes for the nasty with such gusto yet maintains such a rich amount of undercurrent and thought (Well, I guess the last one was A History Of Violence, or for that mater, The Wind That Shakes The Barley). Skin, Blood, Tissue, Water, Wine, Ink, and of course spit make this the most Cronenbergian Cronenberg film since eXistenZ.
The characters are strongly motivated, and have that sweet taste of charming if unlikable (yes this Extends to Naomi Watts’ midwife and her wacky KGB uncle. Perhaps the only ‘good’ character in the piece is her Aunt, who isn’t really given much to do to evaluate her one way or t’other).
This is one handsome flick and doesn’t mind getting mean when it has to. Watts was not abandoned in the film, she is in it just the right amount. Hell, the film belongs to her, Stahl and Cassel. Mortensen is more of a vessel (but a damn fine specimen of controlled viciousness) and a catalyst along the lines of Clive Owen in Croupier. This is also the darker, nastier and grittier version of Dirty Pretty Things (both stories are set in shadier aspects of London, and both written by Steven Knight - anything this guy writes in the future demands immediate viewing.)
I cannot disagree with Grady’s take (on the main-site) more. Go into Eastern Promises expecting greatness and it will be delivered in spades.
Long live that good old flesh.
