Eastern Promises (2007)

	Directed by: David Cronenberg	COUNTRY UK/Canada/USA GENRE Crime/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Eastern Promises RUNNING TIME 100 minutes
	Produced by: Robert Lantos Paul Webster
	Written by: Steven Knight

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Anna	Naomi Watts
Nikolai	Viggo Mortensen	½
Semyon	Armin Mueller-Stahl	½
Kirill	Vincent Cassel
Helen	Sinéad Cusack
Stepan	Jerzy Skolimowski

Review

A remarkably non-visceral film from David Cronenberg, in which he turns his interest to the emigrated Russian mafia in London. He still manages to include a highly embellished and quite humorous knife fight between two naked males in a sauna, of course. This is one of a handful of scenes in Eastern Promises filled with Cronenberg's characteristic, prominent aura, all of which give this otherwise rather conventional mobster film an added edge. Another edge is the acting, which is consistently top-notch. It is great to see Armin Mueller-Stahl back in full force, as he fills out the shoes of Russian paterfamilias Nikolai brilliantly. Equally impressive is Viggo Mortensen in a layered role as Nikolai. It is through the Mortensen character that Eastern Promises works a thematic follow-up to Cronenberg's previous film, A History of Violence, but despite the partly controversial subject matter, this junior release never hits you in the gut or becomes equally cerebrally challenging as his previous outing did.