Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3101 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-25
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
David Cronenberg's signature obsessions flower in Eastern Promises, a stunning look at violence, responsibility, and skin. Near Christmas time in London, a baby is born to a teenage junkie--an event that leads a midwife (Naomi Watts) into the world of the Russian mob. Central to this world is an ambitious enforcer (Viggo Mortensen) who's lately buddied up with the reckless son (Vincent Cassel) of a mob boss (Armin Mueller-Stahl, doing his benign-sinister thing). Screenwriter Steve Knight also wrote Dirty Pretty Things, and in some ways this is a companion piece to that film, though utterly different in style. The plot is classical to the point of being familiar, but Cronenberg doesn't allow anything to become sentimental; he and his peerless cinematographer Peter Suschitzky take a cool, controlled approach to this story. Because of that, when the movie erupts in its (relatively brief) violence, it's genuinely shocking. Cronenberg really puts the viewer through it, as though to shame the easy purveyors of pulp violence--nobody will cheer when the blood runs in this film. Still, Eastern Promises has a furtive humour, nicely conveyed in Viggo Mortensen's highly original performance. Covered in tattoos, his body a scroll depicting his personal history of violence, Mortensen conveys a subtle blend of resolve and lost-ness. He's a true, haunting mystery man. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Vincent Cassel (left) and Viggo Mortensen (right).	Armin Mueller-Stahl.	Viggo Mortensen (left) and Naomi Watts (right)
Viggo Mortensen (left) and Naomi Watts (right).	Naomi Watts.	Armin Mueller-Stahl (left) and Naomi Watts (right).
Mina E. Mina (left), Vincent Cassel (center) and Viggo Mortensen (right).	Vincent Cassel.	Viggo Mortensen.

Customer Reviews

Dirtier, not so pretty things
With 'History of Violence' David Cronenberg initially seemed to have made a change of direction from the 'body horror' genre which he popularised. On closer examination however, both that film and 'Eastern Promises' - which share Viggo Mortensen in the lead role - graft classic Cronenberg themes on to more prosaic contexts. There is less pseudo-science and fantasy about these films (the former set in suburbia and the latter in the London criminal underworld) but they are no less powerfully subversive for that. Cronenberg has claimed that his films should be viewed "from the point of view of the disease", and it is the corruptive nature of criminal violence that provides the physical stigma in both these films.

In 'Eastern Promises', Vigo Mortensen's menacing Russian Mafia goonda Nikolai's body is heavily marked by the 'vory v zakone' tattoos that tell a story of a life in crime. Cronenberg films these marks as dark, almost cancerous stains, which is redolent of his earlier works such as The Fly. The violence is again unflinchingly visceral, in particular in a centre-piece fight in which a naked Nikolai fends off a knife attack in a Turkish bath. The vivid lacerations of the skin force the the viewer to confront their debilitating physical impact. Imagine if Cronenberg had filmed Reservoir Dogs, he certainly would not have spared us Mr Blonde's severing of the cop's ear, but rather given it a close up.

'Eastern Promises' begins with a hemorrhaging fourteen-year-old Ukranian prostitute dying in childbirth. The baby survives, but its violent eruption also suggests that hallmark of the 'body horror' genre, the alien bursting from the stomach in Ridley Scott's classic. The fact that the baby is the product of rape on a virgin compounds this notion of the physical contamination. The purity of the prostitutes' naked bodies are shown in stark contrast throughout the film to the sinewey and beastial tatooed torsoes of Nikolai and Kirill.

Written by Steve Knight, whose previous credits include Stephen Frears' decent 'Dirty Pretty Things', 'Eastern Promises' is a darker, more claustrophobic film. Its characters undergo torturous physical - even spiritual - transformations in a way that deliberately undermines and clouds its conclusion. One suspects the Russian accents have been overdone in places, but this is as unsettling and provocative as cinema gets.

Vory v zakone
Vory v zakone - Thieves in law.

This movie left me very pleased, the script is very good, nothing is over explained but every thing connects. There is a constant threat of menace all through the movie and the portrait of the Russian mafia is dark and sinister, not the men to be trifled with, in fact stay away.

So it is no place for a warm hearted midwife looking for the origins of a new born baby. Her investigations take her face to face with the inner circle of the mafia, a place no one should go. Drugs, assassinations, human trafficking, prostitution - it is a dark world that shuns the light and attention.

With strong preformances by Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel it is the script that shines through. The directing is good and when there is violence it is no holds barred and all the time the potential for more is just below the surface.

It is a good and believable film. Highly recommended.

Eastern Promises
'Eastern Promises' is a film about a midwife who inadvertently become embroiled in the world of the Russian mafia in London. It has plenty of intrigue and a few plot twists and then sadly fizzles out at the end, leaving you feeling rather dissatisfied (hence the 3 stars). It could have delivered so much more and had plenty of scope for an additional twenty minutes or so to tie up loose ends and leave the viewer with a complete ending. In it's favour it has some pretty good performances from Vigo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, but it pays to be aware that there are some quite violent scenes in this film. If you're looking for a short film with enough of a storyline to keep you engaged and don't mind an ambiguous ending then this is the place to go, personally I was left feeling rather deflated and without a feeling of resolution.