Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little review of David Cronenberg’s newest EASTERN PROMISES.

I’m a huge Cronenberg fan. Who isn’t? So, getting a chance to see his newest film was not something I was going to pass up, especially after it took the big award at Toronto this year. Of course, how could it not? Were they really going to pick a Hollywood flick over Canadian Filmmaking Royalty?

I happened to really dig A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. I loved the slow build, the mystery surrounding Viggo Mortensen’s character and the escalating sense of dread. That was also a film over-loaded with great characters. From Ed Harris to William Hurt… we got some really badass characters.

EASTERN PROMISES is a little softer on the pure entertainment value, but it’s just as strong in terms of character work. It’s equally confident to HISTORY OF VIOLENCE and just as good of a movie, but it’s a different kind of flick.

On the surface you’d think the big mysteries (who is this dead Russian girl? Why was she pregnant? What secrets does her diary hold?) of the movie would be the driving force, but it really is more about the characters we’re introduced to and how they roll with the new plot developments. Of course, that’s all movies, but the focus is definitely on character more than the mysteries of the plot.

To that end we have a film filled with great actors being great with each other. Everybody’s at the top of their game in this movie. Viggo’s turn as “the driver” at the beck and call of the Russian mob is nuanced. He’s a sad character, a proud character, good at what he does. It could have easily become a cliché… with the accent, a conflicted mafia employee… does he go with his heart and what’s right or loyalty?

I think a lot of that is helped in how even the villains are painted in more than one dimension. Vincent Cassel is fantastic in this. He’s boisterous, annoying, loving, abusive, scared… He balances so many different emotions. He does some despicable things in this film, but there is a moment where all pretense is washed away, all of his defenses are dropped and you see him for the frightened son he is. You glimpse his soul in this one moment.

It’s that kind of complex character work that makes me love Cronenberg’s stuff. He doesn’t paint in a world of blacks and whites. Fleshy brown and grey are his shades of choice.

Naomi Watts does a good job playing the normal person taking step after step further down the road leading to real villains and true life evil. In many ways it’s a thankless role. It’s not colorful, but it’s necessary. Viggo will get most of the attention from this, deservedly, but without Watts’ character and what she brings to it, Viggo couldn’t given as much texture as he ended up giving to the character.

Armin Mueller-Stahl also deserves notice for his character… kind of a Don in the world of the Russian mob. Again, he’s not one-dimensional. There’s a real kindness, a grandfather-ish quality, to him that is true to who he is as a character. Just like real villains in this world, there’s a light side to him, something human and relatable.

And yes... the naked Viggo fight is fantastic... Cronenberg knows how to stage a brutal, no holds barred fight scene grounded in a painful reality.

On the whole, I really enjoyed the movie and the longer I have to reflect on it, the more I find myself liking it. Cronenberg’s on a helluva run right now. I can’t wait to see the next one.

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com