Reviewed by Max Foizey.

Release Date: September 21, 2007
Directed By: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel
Rating: R

David Cronenberg is one of the most innovative and original directors of all time, and that's one of the reasons his adaptation of the graphic novel "A History of Violence" left me cold. Cronenberg said he didn't realize it was based on other material until halfway through shooting the film, which to me speaks of creative indifference.

The only memorable feature of that feature was the acting, with Cronenberg pushing Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, and William Hurt into inspired performances. (Hurt won an Oscar nomination for his effort.)

Viggo is back in Cronenberg's fold for "Eastern Promises," a film that owes a small debt to "Violence," if only for a similar themes.Cronenberg is back on more solid footing with this story, as "Promises" is a much better film in every respect.

Anna (Naomi Watts) is a midwife at a Hospital in London. One night a young girl dies in childbirth at the hospital, and Anna resolves to find relatives of the newborn. Anna finds the young girl's diary, but it's in Russian, so she asks her Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) to translate it.

Turns out the diary contains some BAD INFO about some BAD PEOPLE who are now out to dispose of the diary as well as anyone who has read it. Enter Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen) a driver for Kirill (Cassel), enforcer for his father Semyon's (Armin Mueller-Stahl) Russian mob.

Mortensen never makes you think of his past roles, he embodies Nikolai Luzhin completely and stops short of becoming a cartoon, even with a Russian accent you know isn't his.

Nikolai is an interesting kot, a calm mobster who goes about his business with cold detachment. You can tell he's always thinking, you're just not sure what about.

The character of Anna is an underwritten part, a shame because given the right material Naomi Watts and be electrifying. Still Watts does a nice job, even though much isn't required from her.

As the Russian mob boss Semyon, Armin Mueller-Stahl proves he is a master of terrifying subtlety.

The entire cast is excellent, but this is by and large Vincent Cassel's film. It's his character Kirill that sticks with you, because of Cassel's powerhouse performance.

This isn't Cronenberg's take on "The Godfather," it's a more intimate story, almost like a Russian twist on "The Departed." The centerpiece of the film is the bathhouse brawl, a scene that took two full days to film. The actors themselves rehearsed, as there are no stunt persons used. The fight, which features a totally nude Viggo, is unrelenting and painful. It's very well staged and very harsh, sure to become the stuff of cinema legend.

It's interesting to see an outsider like Cronenberg manage to stretch and reshape the mainstream thriller genre to his own ends. Still, I long for him to write and direct something akin to his masterpieces "Videodrome" or "eXistenZ." In the meantime, I'll take the "Promises" he gives.

In addition to hosting 'Max on Movies' on Sunday nights at 7pm on 97.1 FM Talk, Max appears weekly on the Dave Glover Show Fridays at 5pm. A member of the Saint Louis Gateway Film Critics Association, Max has written about film and theatre for various print and Web media, and appeared as guest critic on various nationally syndicated radio shows. Max lives in Missouri and is a diehard Miami Dolphins fan. He's not sure what the title "Eastern Promises" has to do with the rest of the film, and thinks Portishead's "Western Eyes" should have played over the end credits for symmetry.