Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg's latest, tells the story of a nurse who gets herself into trouble by being determined to help find the family of a baby which is left in her hands. Traces lead her to the Russian maffia and soon she finds herself in the middle of a dangerous world of betrayal and murder. Overall Eastern Promises kind of feels a bit old fashioned and it's definitely one of those films you either love or hate. The film's setting and style very much remind of the past. Bad guys' throats are cut with fake blood sipping out and running down their necks. A sequence in a sauna ends in a small massacre after providing you with some nice thrills. Cronenberg has made a nice and solid crime drama set in London. Viggo Mortensen is ruthless as the Russian Nikolai, portraying a man you most certainly don't want to cross paths with. People who have seen Cronenberg's A History Of Violence will notice the dark sunglasses and his overall appearance showing many similarities with Ed Harris' character in that same film. Like Violence, Eastern Promises shows how hard it is to escape a world of crime and danger. Once you're part of it it's hard to get out. Eastern Promises is a solid film, but I happened to enjoy it less than Violence. However, seeing it a second time, I might enjoy it more as it took a while for me to get into the Russian accents and the stylistic choices of the film. But taking the film into second account it definitely has a good story and will provide for lots of entertainment.