Eastern Promises

Director David Cronenberg implored an interviewer not to give away the plot of his new film, Eastern Promises, information provided in Roger Ebert’s review, in which he discusses a number of things about the movie, but mostly avoids the plot. Given that request, I have been trying to figure out how to shape my own comments on the film without giving away too much of the plot - and it has been difficult, which is why these comments have not appeared until now, even though I saw the movie three nights ago.

Eastern Promises is a film about Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), the driver for a Russian mob family based in London and doing their family business behind the guise of a fine restaurant. I can’t say for sure that Cronenberg borrowed specifically from The Godfather when he set the Russian family up with a charming, calculating patriarch (called Semyon, played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) who vaguely resembles Vito Corleone; a fireball son of the patriarch, whose wild temper seems always to get the best of him and who vaguely resembles Sonny (this one called Kirill, by Vincent Cassel); and someone not of the family in a trusted role, sort of like Tom Hagen (the aforementioned Nikolai) - but the echoes are there.

Naomi Watts plays a midwife who is part Russian but does not speak the language, and she is drawn into the story when a pregnant young girl dies in childbirth on her ward. Among the girl’s possessions is a diary in Russian, which Anna cannot read. A business card inside the diary (a necessary contrivance) leads Anna to the mob family’s restaurant to see if she can get the diary translated (so she can find out how to contact the family, so that the family can take the baby, which survived).

The film then becomes a character study by way of a crime thriller, and it opens slowly (and sometimes painfully). There are elements of things being not as they seem - but since it is David Cronenberg, you must also contend with the possibility that some of the things that are not as they seem are also not as they seem they are not; and what this means is that as the story progresses and Cronenberg throws double-crosses at you, he also throws double-crosses to those double-crosses at you, and by the time you reach the end of the film, they are coming almost non-stop and stacking up so fast that you can barely keep up.

You might even come away from this film, as the credits roll and the house lights come up, thinking that there is more to come, that you have been cheated of a proper ending. Indeed, with so many movies bearing ridiculous running times, it does seem to be a bit of a cheat that this one clocks in at well under two hours - but it’s not a cheat. It is possible to have resolution without showing how every loose end is tied up.

And the reason that such a thing is possible is because the script is very tight and very carefully revealed through impeccable film editing and highly nuanced character interactions. Mueller-Stahl is excellent in his role as the mob patriarch, as cunning and brilliant as Don Corleone, but less romantic. Vito Corleone could, in some ways, be seen as an anti-hero, but this is not the case here. Mueller-Stahl infuses Semyon with very telling facial expressions and a surprising warmth that just barely conceals the malevolence lurking beneath. Cassel is over the top as Kirill - his malevolence is not remotely concealed, and he revels in it. He is impetuous and out of control in ways Sonny Corleone was not. Naomi Watts does a fine job, but there seems to be something lacking in her delivery - she seems to face every new danger with bravado rather than bravery, though she rarely plays Anna as intimidated. There’s a fine line between naïve and fearless, and I’m not sure she toes that line so much as she shuffles around its edges.

And then there’s Viggo Mortensen, who would have stolen the show, except that it was his show to begin with. He plays Nikolai with a cold, brutal control that is almost a sort of morality of its own. The addition of Anna into the plot reveals a new layer of Nikolai’s personality, and it also alters Nikolai’s trajectory in the story - though the degree of the alteration, and its scope, are elements of the plot that I am doing my best not to reveal. Everything good about Mueller-Stahl’s performance as Semyon is at work in Mortensen’s Nikolai, with one difference - Nikolai, unlike Semyon, has multiple dimensions, and Mortensen juggles them with ease.

(This is part of what I wrote about Mortensen and how he plays his character the first time I took a stab at writing this review: It is clear by Mortensen’s portrayal of Nikolai that this is a far deeper character, a far deeper person, than anyone else in the story. Most of the people we pass on the street every day are very, very ordinary - only once in a great while do we cross paths with anyone who is extraordinary. Nikolai is one of those rare souls - seemingly detached from everyone and everything, yet inextricably involved in everything; and you are drawn to this character because he understands everything about human nature and plays to the weaknesses of everyone around him.)

In a perfect world, this is the sort of picture that would rack up lots of major Oscar nominations - Actor, Director, Picture, Original Screenplay; but I suspect that there is a better chance of its being acknowledged on nomination day in smaller ways - Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Score; and that’s not to say that those aren’t fine awards - but it is to say that this is a picture that deserves to have a big Oscar night, except that it might just be a bit too taboo. And that’s a damn shame, because this is a really, really good movie.