Eastern Promises

A terrific, tight, violent, homo erotic thriller with a soul and a heart and if that wasn't enough, Viggo Mortensen! He is an astonishing actor, he's always been. But now his Russian "I'm just a driver" goes further than most actors would have dared. He is magnetic. Cronenberg designs two lives again for him but this time the universe where he lives is made of monsters with an accent. The splendid Armin Mueller-Stahl's bonhomie doesn't fools us for a moment. "A diary?" That's enough for us to know and to fear. Vincent Cassel is also terrific and his down, tactile moments with Viggo Mortensen, have an erotic undercurrent that is impossible to ignore. Naomi Watts brings the heart to the proceedings without ever being sentimental. David Cronenberg, I feel, is entering a spectacular new face to his already remarkable career.

"Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

If Viggo Mortensen fighting naked in a London steam bath with some bad Chechens doesn't interest you, then perhaps I can offer you a second-tier Godfather with strong family "values" and exceptional acting. Director David Cronenberg in Eastern Promises comes through again with realistic violence and depressing ambiance, cast over by a humanity that even the Godfather has trouble matching.

Mid-wife Anna (Naomi Watts) happens on a prostitute's volatile diary in the emergency room. The London Russian mob, vory v zachone, wants it back because it implicates the son of kingpin Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine) in crimes. Driver to the mob, but good guy deep down, Nikolai (Mortensen), serves as the agent collecting the diary and carrying out the fate of those who have read it. As in most mob stories, loyalty is coin of the realm, so much so that even children of a don are not exempt from the rigid code. As in Dirty Pretty Things, young girls like body parts are bought and sold like slaves in a careless market.

Cronenberg's worlds are usually violent, topsy-turvy, and peopled by bipolar miscreants who have accepted the dangers in hope of riches or power but at the same time fight with themselves over the moral implications. So too in Eastern Promises where a helpless newborn topples a kingmaker and makes virtuous royalty of others. Getting the throne or that royalty is tough for Nikolai, whose naked fight to the death in the bath is a tour de force of violent ballet, even discounting Mortensen's other-worldly physique. Cronenberg's fascination with the body's vulnerability is memorable here, stripped down and utterly alone, like birth and death.

The majesty of Coppola's Godfather is partly here but more diluted; the array of complex characters in the Corleone family just is not duplicated. Yet Mueller-Stahl has Brando's quiet authority and Mortensen Pacino's quietly dangerous charm (when he says, "I live in the zone all the time," you can't help but wonder what secret turmoil lives in his heart). Neither Eastern Promises actor can possibly surpass those Godfather icons, but they and the film are promising affiliates of the royal gangland canon.

Russian mobsters, a rainy, murky London, a midwife and Viggo Mortensen makes this David Cronemberg film a perfect companion piece to his "A History Of Violence". My two favourite films of this idiosyncratic and fascinating director. Naomi Watts and motherhood go beautifully together and it's her gutsy maternal instinct that throws her in a world populated by truly horrible people. The trick is, we go with her and within that brutal world we meet some memorable characters. Viggo Mortensen, what an actor! His fearlessness is riveting, he's also beautiful beyond words. We think we can read him but we doubt our own thoughts, he's in total control of his character and of his audience. He has the face of an icon and he underplays it, over playing it. If you see History Of Violence and Eastern Promises you'll understand what I mean. This is not a film to like but to love and I loved it.

"Eastern promises" is the first film for David Cronenberg that was shot entirely outside his native Canada and it is the second film of Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen - after "The History of Violence" (2005). It should be mentioned that Viggo Mortensen had done a very impressive research for his Oscar-nominated role of Nikolai Luzhin, a modest driver and also an "undertaker" and a hit-man for the Russian mafia boss in London. Mortensen alone, without a translator, had traveled across Russia, visiting the Urals Mountains where his character came from, and also stopped in Moscow and St.-Petersburg. Mortensen diligently learned Russian to make the Russian phrases of Siberian Nikolai sound more naturally. He also studied the literature on Russian prisons and their unofficial kings, "vory v zakone" or thieves in the law, the most respected and feared criminals. The script was written by Stephen Knight whose previous film on the subject of the emigrants in modern London, "Dirty Pretty Things" (2002), proves that he is a talented writer. Sadly, the script is the weakest part of "Eastern Promises" and while watching the movie I thought that it had deserved the better writing. The story is predictable from the very beginning and it lacks subtlety. All twists and turns are clearly seen a mile away. Even with the obvious problems in the script, "Eastern promises" is an interesting film - intense, gloomy, dark, and violent. David Cronenberg's directing is laconic, non sentimental, almost clinical and always virtuoso. The gruesome fight scene in the Turkish Baths is a masterpiece, the way it was choreographed and shot. Cronenberg must have used the knowledgeable Russian consultants on the set and I was pleasantly surprised that the Russian phrases sound naturally, and pronunciation and intonations of the non-Russian actors were believable. Besides Mortinsen, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent Casselas as Nikolai's horrifying boss and his creepy son, are especially memorable. Surprisingly, Naomi Watts whom I adore in every movie I've seen her, plays the least interesting character and I attribute it to the weaknesses of the script.

"Eastern Promises" will take your breath away, churn your stomach, and then leave you with memories of unforgettable characters as well as perplexing thoughts about good and evil. David Cronenberg's movie about Russian and Chechen mobsters clashing in London is more than violent - it is brutal, savage, shocking. But do not expect just an action film, exploiting blood and gore. After you shake off its terrific immediate impact (there is no way to think while watching it), you realize that "Eastern Promises" is also a kind of morality tale, complex and important.

Only after you hold your breath, cover your eyes, and get through the movie do you realize how "Eastern Promises" manages to contradict Friedrich Nietzsche effectively. The German philosopher's "Beyond Good and Evil" denied the possibility of a universal morality. Cronenberg's film says that ethics - without expectation of rewards, in this life or a possible other one - can prevail even in the depths of great evil. The "History of Violence" director continues his subtle, subtext theme of upholding Anne Frank's belief that "in spite of everything people are really good at heart," and he does so without a smidgen of sentimentality.

There is no goodness in evidence as Viggo Mortensen's scary Russian mobster does every bidding of Armin Mueller-Stahl's chilling godfather figure, ruling ruthlessly over a family, which includes his son, a monster out of control, played brilliantly by Vincent Cassel (son of Jean-Pierre Cassel).

During a pre-release press tour, Cronenberg spoke of his wish to present "provocative, juicy stories... with complexity... showing that all monsters are sentimental and have some kind of relationship to a moral compass." That is all true, but what makes "Eastern Promises" so appealing is that there is no pop psychology (or worse, pop philosophy) in or about it. The film hits you over the head with its magnificently written story (Steven Knight, of "Dirty Pretty Things"), not with a message.

The title, on one level, refers to promises made to young women in Russia, luring them to the West, where the Mob enslaves them as prostitutes. It is one of these drugged and brutalized women whose death opens the film, and brings an English nurse (Naomi Watts) into the story.

As a multitude of promises, threats and tragedies unfolds, you get the maximum out of "Eastern Promises" with minimum advance knowledge of its story. Initially, that is. When you return to see it again, it won't matter that you'll know how it ends, you will want to re-experience what is certain to become a classic film. ("Eastern Promises" was shown at the Toronto Festival last week, opened in San Francisco today, goes nationwide on Sept. 21.)