Eastern Promises

I actually wrote this post once, but my computer decided to fuck me by going batshit and losing the entire post. So, I don't really feel like writing the entire thing again, but let me assure you that the original post was witty, eloquent, and convincing, as is typical of all my posts.

I believe that I began by saying, "a lot has happened in the 2 weeks since I've posted. I no doubt have disappointed all 5 of my readers, but I am determined to win their hearts with a slew of new posts this weekend." That's how I began and I intend to keep my word about about a complete renewal here. So, let me begin with David Cronenberg's minor masterpiece, EASTERN PROMISES.

Question 1: Did I attend a Variety-sponsored screening? YES
Question 2: Cronenberg and writer Steve Knight (surprise) present? YES
Question 3: Did I direct a question at both, which both of whom answered? HELL YES
Question 4: Can you hear their response anywhere? YES. HERE: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=videoBC&bcpid=1079069523&bclid=1112164013&bctid=1184470637

EASTERN PROMISES is a small-scale, intimate gangster film that turns out to be less about gangsters than it is about people. This movie is driven by its characters. Its as if Steve Knight came up with four characters whom he loved and made a list of behaviours indigenous to them and built a plot that reacts solely to those behaviours. It could not have been too hard with the quality of these characterizations.

I don't want to say too much, for I'd hate to ruin the simplistic story by revealing the subtle, yet important twists. Suffice to say, that this is a story of 4 people and the ways in which they surprise themselves and one another by being more than they initially appear.

That's not to say they're all Keyser Soze.

The plot synopsis: Naomi Watts plays a midwife delivering the child of a dying, 14 yr old drug addict. She becomes determined to track down the girl's origins and her brief investigation leads her to a family-oriented restaurant run for Russian patriarch, Armin Mueller Stahl. Populating the dark corners of the restaurant are Stahl's son - Vincet Cassell, and his trusted, ice-cool Driver, played by ice-cool Viggo Mortensen. It all is a front for the Russian mafia, which is not a revelation of any sort.

This is all I will say of the plot. As for the performances, well, all are solid, but one, and really only one, is AMAZING. Viggo Mortensen gives a masterclass on underplaying cool, slick, calculating, vicious, stoic, and sensitive all at once. This is one of those iconic, poster-worthy performances that people will be talking about forever. Its a star turn. Something, and I hate to say it, but something that Brand may have done or something that Bogart did. He never tries to do so, but Viggo completely dominates the screen when he is there. Sometimes, he does so from the back or the left, or anywhere but the center of the shot. As I said, this is top-flight acting.

Now, the scene everybody is already talking about - The Bathhouse Knockdown dragout. Here is a fight scene whose blows land with an impact everyone in the audience will feel. Yes, Viggo is naked, but that only enhances the stakes, as he has nothing to hide behind. It is easily one of the greatest fight scenes every captured on film and that's all I will say.

Did I like this more than "A History of Violence?" I don't know. I think this is the better story, but that one featured the surprising, Oscar-caliber cameo by William Hurt - some of the best acting I have ever seen.

Go see EASTERN PROMISES and decide for yourself. Cross your fingers that Viggo and Cronenberg continue this relationship.