Grady Hendrix Reviews EASTERN PROMISES

Reader Comments

1. Timo 09/20/2007 @ 2:56pm

   While I like Grady and his writing, that second-to-last paragraph certainly wasn’t necessary…

2. Kurt Halfyard 09/20/2007 @ 3:15pm

   oi!  Tack on a spoiler warning!

3. Josh Ralske 09/20/2007 @ 4:52pm

   But Grady, what about us viewers that aren’t so concerned with penis size?

   Very Armond White of you to ascribe such motivations to us wanna-be-hipster-no-good-sex-having critics. (I’ll actually cop to the second one, but I’d like to think that if I ever do have sex again, it will be good.) (Actually, I should admit that I haven’t reviewed the film in any official capacity or even blogged about it. I merely enjoyed it.)

   Um, I liked Cronenberg before it was cool? No, that won’t work.

   But the movie seems a lot more ambiguous to me than you are giving it credit for. You think we’re supposed to see Viggo as some kind of good guy superhero because he’s SPOILER working with law enforcement, but I think there’s something much darker and stranger going on with the movie’s “happy” ending. Like the “I could never eat a bug” ending of Blue Velvet, it isn’t really all as straightforward and joyful and perfect as it seems, is it?

   In any case, it’s not my favorite Cronenberg film, but like History of Violence, it does bring something of his sensibility and his aesthetic to an otherwise very well executed genre film.

4. TheDoug 09/20/2007 @ 5:30pm

   I’m confused Todd, Grady doesn’t post this review on his own web-blog KAIJU SHAKEDOWN but he delivers his spoiler-filled commentary here???!!!!!  I mean, I’ll read Grady anywhere but why wouldn’t he post this on his own domain? I also know this is just one “fans” opinion but it deflate me from wanting to puto down some coin to see this latest Cronenberg venture. Oh Grady!!!!

5. Tushka 09/20/2007 @ 9:47pm

   I quite enjoyed Easter Promises.  I could care less about Viggo’s package.  “It” was not the focal point of the movie nor the focal point during the beautifully brutal fight scene in the bath house.  Viggo bears all.  So what?

   As far as the revelation goes about him being undercover, I figured that out after the sex scene.  True, the ending could have been tighter, but as a whole, Eastern Promises was worth the 14 bucks I paid to see it.

   Maybe Grady should watch this one again and try not be so fixated on Viggo’s package.

6. Grady Hendrix 09/21/2007 @ 7:01am

   My problem with the movie is that the reveal that Viggo was working for the cops totally disintegrated the film as effectively as a death ray. It was a cheap gimmick that really ruined this movie for me. The film is setting up a mood and an atmosphere all along, putting its characters in conflict and establishing tension, and then there’s the kind of plot 180 that I expect from Hong Kong movies that are re-edited for Mainland China (like the tacked-on reveal that Louis Koo is an undercover cop in ELECTION, or the reveal that Ekin Cheng is an undercover cop in the Malaysian version of YOUNG AND DANGEROUS).

   This was a perfectly fine B-movie: there are major flaws, and a cookie cutter story, but some good performances and set pieces that give it an extra dimension. But people ask what’s wrong with the movies today and maybe it’s the fact that the critical community sets up deeply flawed b-pictures as the top end of the critical yardstick. And I’m not just reacting to the critical writing about EASTERN PROMISES. Without having read a single review when I saw the movie, that revelation that Viggo is a cop made me wish the movie was a book so I could throw it across the room. Even thinking about it I just feel ill.

   And was ever a leading lady so poorly utilized by a director outside of T&A;horror flicks? Did she someone annoy Cronenberg in a way that Maria Bello in HISTORY OF VIOLENCE didn’t? For all the things I don’t like about HISTORY, at least Bello had something to do in that movie.

7. Grady Hendrix 09/21/2007 @ 7:02am

   One more thing: where on earth do you have to pay $14 to see a movie? Holy cow, I wanna know so I never move there! $11 is what the going rate is in NYC and that’s about all I can take.

8. Collin Armstrong 09/21/2007 @ 7:44am

   Nice take, Grady.  I actually came out of the picture a little worse off than you, I think.

   Man did this disappoint.  If anyone other than Cronenberg directed this the establishment would be all over it for what it is - a horribly cliched suspense film with a few decent set pieces and a reasonable sense of style.  Cronenberg brings very little to the table here that puts me in mind of his talents - same problem I had with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, come to think of it.  I’m not saying I’m only a Cronenberg fan so long as he’s showing us videotapes shoved into stomachs and wound penetration (I loved SPIDER) - he just needs to be more careful picking his projects.  Will we see the writer / director Cronenberg again, I wonder?

9. Kurt Halfyard 09/21/2007 @ 8:55am

   Holy folk, you are scaring me with this.  I’m kinda disappointed that I won’t be going into EP cold (I didn’t get a chance to catch it at TIFF).  My expectations are all askew with the critical praise and now Grady’s take and the reviews. 

   Normally, Grady and I are not on the same page, but recently with “M” and in retrospect, I’ve started to like “EXODUS” as an retrospective intellectual exercise—it’s almost like the deadpan absurdity doesn’t hit you while watching, but in hindsight it kinda leaps out at you.  But the actual viewing experience was kinda off-kilter - wonder if this will happen to anyone with Eastern Promises…

   Loved A History of Violence though, particularly for the two well-shot and quite telling sex scenes in that film. 

   And having Cassel as an unhinged nutbar in your film can never hurt can it?

   I’ll be catching the EP this weekend some time...I’m hoping I love it, but am a tad worried now.

10. Josh Ralske 09/21/2007 @ 4:00pm

    Grady, thanks for responding. I am leary of the critical consensus generally, but I’m a lot more bothered by it when they’re trumpeting something like Crash (not the Cronenberg one) or even Wedding Crash than HOV or EP, which don’t insult my intelligence, whatever you think of that well-foreshadowed plot twist. I still don’t think that the revelation that Viggo’s character is working with the authorities in some kind of maverick, self-interested way is as big a deal as you make it out to be. He is still a very morally ambiguous and, I think, well-drawn character, with or without the law on his side.

    As for Naomi’s character, I find her nearly as interesting/disturbing in a similar self-interested way. So I don’t think Watts is wasted here. I don’t think there should have been a stronger connection between her and Viggo than there was in the film. They both have other things on their mind.

    I think it’s more than just a good B-picture. I think it’s an excellent B-picture, with a great sense of place, great characters, rich performances, a lot of style, and a compelling subtext. And yes, a fantastic naked fight scene.

    Kurt, I would think if you’re a fan of HOV, you wouldn’t have any problem with this. They are essentially cut from the same cloth.

11. Kurt Halfyard 09/22/2007 @ 8:52pm

    Wow.  Grady, consider the honeymoon over!  Just got back from Eastern Promises and simply 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. 

    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 and a catalyst along the lines of Clive Owen in Croupier. 

    I cannot disagree with Grady’s take more.  GO into Eastern Promises expecting greatness and it will be delivered in spades.

    Long live the old flesh.

12. Tushka 09/22/2007 @ 11:18pm

    Arc Light Theater Hollywood.  Matenee is $11.

13. Michael Guillen 09/23/2007 @ 10:35am

    Kurt, so happy to hear you weren’t swayed by Grady’s swill.

14. Kurt Halfyard 09/23/2007 @ 2:13pm

    It was a surreal TIFF, the few times I ran into Grady we found ourselves strangely on the same page about a number of things (not the least of them Lee Myung-Se’s “M”, but a few others as well).  Since we usually differ, some sort of quantum state or lunar phase seemed to be out-of-order.  All is back to normal with Eastern Promises though. 

    /kidding - mostly

    Grady is the most entertaining read on the Internet, no matter what his opinion is, it is always worth reading!

15. Josh Ralske 09/23/2007 @ 9:15pm

    Grady has one of the best blogs out there (or in here?) and, based on his programming for the NYAFF, I’d say his tastes are generally pretty excellent, too. Even this review was a fun read. But wrong!

Post Your Comments

• Next Entry
• Previous Entry