 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 | 🎙️ EPISODE 555: 09.15.22 This movie rules. I feel like it gets less love than A History of Violence but — in my eyes — it's a far more entertaining film in most every way: better paced, better action, better plot. Not that AHOV is bad, by any means. Just that these two seem more of a back-to-back pair than any other run in the Cronenberg filmography. They both mark significant genre departures (the Philly mob has been replaced by the Russian mob here) as well as the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with Viggo Mortensen, whom would go onto feature in four of his six most reason movies. And both films begin with an incredibly violent act, setting the tone right out of the gate... |
Curious about the details surrounding the mother and her diary, she goes snooping for clues in the Russian part of town. Her own Russian-speaking uncle had refused to translate the diary but her lineage gets her in at a restaurant that's a front for the mob. When the boss Semyon (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) hears about this diary and the secrets it holds, he takes a keen interest. But Anna is reluctant to hand it over right away, and brings over a photocopied version instead.
Here we're also introduced to Kirill, the boss's son (played by Vincent Cassel) and Nikolai, a driver (Mortensen) working his way up the ranks. Much of the success of this hinges on not knowing what Nikolai's true intentions are...
**ALL SPOILERS AHEAD**
The contents of the diary reveal that Semyon is the dead girl's baby's father and we learn that the man killed in the opening scene was a made man in the Chechen mafia spreading lies about Kirill being gay (Note: they probably weren't lies). Needless to say, Semyon wants the original copy of the diary back and Anna complies, but not before her Russian uncle does indeed make his own translation. Fearing this, Semyon orders Nikolai to take care of the uncle. And as the first retaliation for the opening kill sequence, the dimwitted kid gets his throat slashed on the way to a soccer game...
(Note: Doesn't seem to be too much significance behind the grave he's pissing on, although to prominently focus on the name like that? I'm kind of shocked.)
Nikolai is given made-man status and the very specific star tattoos that go with it. This leads right into one of the most brutally violent fight scenes I've ever seen. The Chechen mob want Kirill dead for ordering the hit on their man, so they send a team of thugs. Only these guys don't know what he looks like and a go-between IDs him as Nikolai (he now has the star tattoos to prove membership). It was a setup ordered by Semyon to save his son's life, only they didn't expect Nikolai to turn into Tom Stall from AHOV. A butt-naked Viggo Mortensen fends off and kills both attackers in a delirious three-minute scene. Here's part of it (minus his dick flopping about)...
A fucked-up Nikolai ends up in the hospital after that and here we learn he's been a secret intelligence agent this entire time, for the FSB (the new KGB out of Russia) working alongside local British police. He didn't kill Anna's uncle; he sent him to a hotel in Scotland. And he tells the cops they can arrest Semyon on statutory rape charges because they have DNA from the baby.
But they might be too late, as Kirill — on orders from his father — has already kidnapped the baby. A panicked Anna and a hobbled Nikolai leave the hospital and track him down at the last spot he disposed of a body. And he can't go through with it.
The film jumps forward and we see Anna has adopted the child and Nikolai, undercover, has risen the ranks to head of the organization.
I didn't go as deep with my clips in this review, because it's honestly one you have to see for yourself. Featuring a great screenplay by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, it's yet another high-water mark in this late period for Cronenberg. A tight, flowing, entertaining and wonderfully acted crime drama. From the guy who did Scanners no less. What a crazy and fascinating trajectory.
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 18th 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚐 – 𝚖𝚢 𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑/𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝙳𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚍 𝙲𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚐'𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚖𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢. 𝙲𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎...
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 554 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 556A ⫸
⫷ EPISODE 554 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 556A ⫸
Eastern Promises is a 2007 gangster film directed by David Cronenberg from a screenplay by Steven Knight. The film tells the story of Anna (Naomi Watts), a Russian-British midwife who delivers the baby of a drug-addicted 14-year old Russian prostitute who dies in childbirth. After Anna learns that the teen was forced into prostitution by the Russian Mafia in London, the leader of the Russian gangsters (Armin Mueller-Stahl) threatens the baby, and Anna is warned off by a strong-arm man (Viggo Mortensen). It was released on September 8, 2007.
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