This thorough and clinical review leaves me kinda cold. It doesn't make me want to see "Eastern Promises." I will see "Eastern Promises," however, because I adored Cronenberg's last feature, "The History of Violence," especially the relevatory performance by Viggo Mortensen, which, by everything else I have read, is exceeded by his protean performance in "Promises."
~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > My Quick Take: Ever seen a Cronenberg film? Then you know one thing to expect: some pretty intense violence, some graphic (and slightly disturbing) coupling, and a picture where good and evil blur into each other. "Eastern Promises" continues the director's penchant for looking at the extremes to which humans are driven, and seems to ask the question, is violence an inescapable part of all human's natures? It's pretty solemn, almost downbeat, but nonetheless a fascinating look at some aspects of the Russian mafia, and as always, a disturbingly fascinating look at how far people will go. If you liked "A History of Violence", "ExistenZ", or "Dead Ringers", you'll--well, not "enjoy", but get into--"Eastern Promises". If you find his work off-putting, too violent, or too gross, then you might find this picture just too much. > > > My Full Take: David Cronenberg is often criticized for the graphic nature of his films. That might be his history of looking unflinchingly at violent or disturbing material. Recalling Jeff Goldblum's body parts falling off in "The Fly", or the brutal fight scenes and explicit sex scenes in "A History of Violence", it's understandable why some might feel that way. But dig deeper beneath the surface of his films, and you'll see a director who simply explores the depth of the human condition, and isn't shy from being realistic in doing so. He's not a man who uses violence gratuitously, but rather shows the reality of what humans do to each other in all its disturbing nature. In that way, Cronenberg's like a war photographer: using graphic and disturbing pictures to tell a trutha truth that some might not want to face, but truth nonetheless. > > "Eastern Promises" is another of his moving-pictures of the extremes to which humans can subject themselves and others. The film starts with a teenaged girl collapsing in a pharmacy in a pool of blood. She's taken to a hospital where she later dies in childbirth. Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), the midwife who works on the case, learns that the girl was a fourteen-year-old named Tatiana, and is drawn into her story. How did she get pregnant at such a young age? Where was her family? Tatiana leaves behind a diary written in Russian, that Anna gives to her uncle to translate. Almost immediately he warns Anna to drop the whole affair. The small bit he's read reveals Tatiana was brought to London by the local Russian mafia, who made her promises of a new life, only to force her into a life of sexual slavery. > > Despite her uncle's warning, Anna visits the mafia boss, Semyon, and asks him about Tatiana. Semyon tries to get Anna to give him the diary, to forget about Tatiana, but despite veiled threats she refuses, looking for justice for Tatiana and her motherless child, delving deeper into a dangerous world. > > Included in that world is Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) a driver for the mafia. Luzhin is a good soldier; the kind who keeps his mouth shut and does what he's told. The kind of man who can cut the fingers off a dead body, then later have a drink with the killer, or have sex with a barely legal prostitute to prove he's a real man. He's also the kind of man who doesn't necessarily take pleasure in some of the things he has to do. They're just business, necessary evils of his world. Luzhin tries to give Anna a friendly warning: forget the girl and be safe, and leave behind a world where she doesn't belong. But again, she ignores the warnings. > > Anna's persistence at first appears to be an outgrowth of her own problems: a recent breakup and miscarriage that have her sad and lost. Surely only forlorn despair could make anyone act so recklessly, it seems. But in time we come to realize that Anna really is a decent person trying to correct a wrong. As she comes to understand how Tatiana was cruelly used she wants to make sure that someone paysor at least acknowledges the loss of this young life. "She was used and thrown away like garbage", Anna says. "Someone should care about who she was and what happened to her". > > In Anna, Cronenberg shows a person desperately fighting a world that seems dominated by violence and cruelty. It's as if with this one small victory she'll prove that the world's not all bad. She's the lone voice in a world where crime and cruelty might be the norm, and Anna can't accept that. Cronenberg underscores this point by focusing on the Russian underworld, making it seem more substantial than Anna's. As the film progresses, we see Anna less and less, Watts taking on an almost supporting role as Anna darts in and out of a world that looms large and inevitable. It sucks in and holds those who live in it as much as it keeps people like Anna out. > > Luzhin is a case in point. With his soft spoken, almost disinterested manner, he seems weary, resigned to the lot dealt him in life. He does what he has to do to survive, which sometimes means doing brutal things. But at times he seems almost concerned about the innocents like Anna, who don't belong in his life. There are hints of, if not "goodness" in Luzhin, then at least less cruelty than those around him. Even if most of the world is bad, he doesn't add to that unnecessarily: he's trapped, but Anna and those like her needn't be. > > Perhaps, Cronenberg is saying, this is the real world, or at least, the real world to which so many of us fall. Indeed, as the film's last scenes play out, intermixing scenes of happiness with those of grimness, it seems that happiness is a rare thing, more precious for being surrounded by so much brutality. > > "Eastern Promises', in true Cronenberg fashion, can be sobering, almost depressing. It has scenes of graphic sexuality and shocking brutality. But for all that he doesn't use either gratuitously. He picks a target, points his lens in that direction, and lets the images play out as they must. I don't exactly feel good watching a Cronenberg film, but like with those war photos, I know I'm seeing pictures of an aspect of truth. A sometimes disturbing, even unsavory truth, but not a trivial one, and certainly not one quickly forgotten. > > > My Grade: B > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
