Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg's new film Eastern Promises juxtaposes extreme violence and gentle tenderness in a subtly hypnotic fashion that transfixes your attention upon its natal brutality, like The Godfather meets Videodrome. A 14 year old Russian prostitute dies during childbirth leaving behind an incriminating diary. The on-duty midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) discovers the diary and enlists the assistance of a Russian caterer named Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) to assist in its translation. Semyon is the mobster responsible for recruiting the young prostitute and after reading several of the diary's photocopied pages, decides that it's in his best interests to obtain it. Meanwhile, Anna's uncle is also translating the diary, Semyon's son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) has murdered the brother of a rival syndicate, and mild-mannered Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), Semyon's chauffeur, is dispensing realistic bits of streetwise vernacular with a remarkably tranquil hard-boiled lucidity. Mortensen's performance is exceptional and one of the strongest of 2007. His Russian accent is borderline flawless and his character tenaciously charming. Steven Knight's script is diverse enough to allow Cronenberg to effectively display his grotesque humanism, and Naomi Watts turns in another stellar outing. It's nice to see Cronenberg successfully retuning his style at this stage in his career while continuing to invigorate his work with the same raw, macabre, pyrotechnic backbone that worked for him thirty years ago. Gave me shivers.