Day 119: Eastern Promises

"I can't become king if someone else already sits on the throne."

Eastern Promises is a good film. Good, not great. And one of the main reasons for that fact is that its director, David Cronenberg is a great director. Great, not good. Cronenberg has always been a favorite 
of mine, especially Videodrome. I love his old organic mutation/philosophical horror mode, but I respect his new direction. He is following a line of what he calls exploring transgressions. A History of Violence, thematically, is practically this films other half.



The plot of this film is thick, as thick as its accents. The acting is superb on all fronts. I found it hard to identify just who these characters were supposed to represent until nearly half way through the film. And I think that is one of its great strengths. The atmosphere and characters are so developed and dynamic you don’t stop to push them into stereotypes—they are beyond good and evil, they are human.

The cinematography is excellent. The fight scene in the bath house is something to behold. Cronenberg finally let his hair down and returned to his horrific roots. I’m surprised with the nudity and extreme violence that this didn’t get an NC-17. Thank god, though, even fewer people would have seen it.

The shift of Mortensen’s character was unnecessary. In fact it would have been better had he just been a mobster with a heart only slightly tinged with gold. And the kiss between him and Watts was a bit far fetched. You could almost feel those being forced onto the film to maintain some type of marketing technique to reach more demographics. Overall though, this is nitpicking.

Had a director other than Cronenberg tackled this, some Hollywood hire in, it would have become a big crime drama police chase over the top action spectacle. Cronenberg wove it into a tight, condensed, and impacting character study. Though there is extreme violence portrayed, it is not gratuitous. It simply presents you with the cold hard facts. Most of it is so matter of fact, just accepted, as it is for these cold blooded killers.

Eastern Promises is one hell of a film. There are only a few minor quibbles that keep it from being great. I’d like to see it again to pick up all of the nuances and shifts in loyalties and plot that I missed, but more so, I’d like to see it again just because it’s damn good.