Rent Eastern Promises (2007)

Brutal Gangster Film - Eastern Promises review by GI

This is the second crime film that director David Cronenberg made with Viggo Mortensen after 2005s A History of Violence. Eastern Promises is basically a gangster film, set in London and narratively focused on Russian organised crime. It's a brutal film with huge dollops of highly realistic violence one of which opens the film. It tends to give up story to try and give a generalised history of the Russian gangland customs which ultimately leaves the film coming up short although it throws in a plot twist which is weakened by a very anticlimactic ending. When a teenage girl dies in childbirth, midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) armed only with the girl's diary attempts to find her family to tell them about the baby. This leads her to a restaurant owned by the helpful Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who happens to be a ruthless Russian mobster. Anna finds her family are soon threatened but she finds an ally in the mobsters driver Nikolai (Mortensen). Mortensen gives it his all as usual and Mueller-Stahl is excellent. Watts though is sadly underused here and the support of Vincent Cassell doing his usual unhinged psycho is a waste of talent and seems very clichéd. Overall the film has some merit but it's not as interesting as the earlier Cronenberg/Mortensen collaboration.

eastern promises - Eastern Promises review by CP Customer

Is it me or when one 'rents' a dvd does one expect a 'cinema film' not a channel 4 or this case a bbc film, after saying that, this was quiete bloody real violence good storyline, and excelent acting,would have waited to see on bbc free, but glad I didnt now,

Strong stuff! - Eastern Promises review by HM

Heavy violence in London's den of multi-culture. A Russian émigré family mired in criminality find incriminating evidence in the possession of an English girl of Russian decent; a diary to be precise. Crime caper unfolds as we glimpse into the world of the Russian mafia.

Suspense, mystery and action combine to keep you gripped until a surprise ending. Worth a watch without doubt. Cronenberg likes his layers as this onion script unpeels.