Eastern Promises Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Every sin leaves a mark.
The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon, whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill, who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father. But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives - including his own - hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.
| Josef Altin | Ekrem |
| Mina E. Mina | Azim |
| Aleksandar Mikic | Soyka |
| Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse | Tatiana |
| Lalita Ahmed | Customer |
| Badi Uzzaman | Chemist |
| Naomi Watts | Anna |
| Doña Croll | Nurse |
| Raza Jaffrey | Doctor Aziz |
| Sinéad Cusack | Helen |
| Jerzy Skolimowski | Stepan |
| Tatiana Maslany | Tatiana's Voice |
| Viggo Mortensen | Nikolai |
| Vincent Cassel | Kirill |
| Armin Mueller-Stahl | Semyon |
| David Cronenberg |
8.00 out of 10 (11757 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Best Parts of the movie were in the preview. Other than that.. boo
posted on 30 Aug 2009Not the best movie I've seen... Good plot, but it just didn't come close to living up to the trailer.. I was quite disappointed and bored throughout the movie.. Vigo did a nice job acting and he was a believable character but overall the rest of the movie was sub par. Though the ending did make for a better movie, I pretty much knew it was coming anyway.. I'm a big fan of gangster/mob movies such as Carlito's Way, Scarface, Godfather and all the others and this is what I thought i was going to get from this movie but it just didn't. While I'd watch it if I was bored and had nothing else to watch, I wouldn't go out of my way to get hands on a copy or pay to see it on demand.
Cronenberg's finest work in years; mesmerizing Mortensen is Oscar-worthy; one helluva fight sequence for the film vault
posted on 28 Aug 2009EASTERN PROMISES (2007) ***1/2 Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Jerzy Skolimowski, Josef Altin. Absorbing crime drama and character study served up with dank, dark aplomb by master filmmaker David Cronenberg: a young London-based midwife of Russian heritage (Watts) finds herself embroiled with the Russian mob when one of her charges, a 14 year old girl, dies after delivering a baby, who has ties to the nefarious owner of a respectable restaurant (Stahl, an avuncular monster). Mortensen as the Mafioso's driver is mesmerizing in an Oscar-worthy turn and offers one of cinema's most memorable fight sequences in a steam bath wearing nothing but his tattoos. Steven Knight's serpentine screenplay echoes many other genre films but somehow maintains an originality about it.
One Great Movie
posted on 28 Aug 2009A relatively simple story told in an amazingly unassuming way, with great performances (never over the top), with a decent twist, and a decent ending all make for one of the best movies of the year. Viggo Mortensen continues his strong performances from A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005), along with convincing performances from Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and even an outstanding supporting role from Vincent Cassel. A fight scene near the end is one of the most riveting, obviously clumsy scenes making it one of the compelling scenes for its primal, rip-gutting fight for survival shots by director David Cronenberg who brings all of his talent of one of his horror genre with him (a clear sign of a good director). The movie begins with a shocking scene and ends with a tender one, allowing the audience to realize that something important happened in this movie. Easily open for film award nominations of some kind - but is it too far out of the box cinema for the major awards? Nine out of Ten Stars.
Poorly Paced, Graphic Disappointment
posted on 18 Aug 2009Eastern Promises is intolerably European in every way that's bad. It's needlessly graphic ranging from brutal throat slashing to finger severing to the naked bath house hack-fest. Despite the last sentence, there wasn't any real action or intensity in this movie whatsoever. This movie suffered greatly from poor pacing and a lack of any real conclusion to the under cover story. It's like they filmed three quarters of the film and simply got tired of telling the story. Adding to the malaise, the plot twist was easy to spot. As mentioned, the pace was awful. During that singing scene in the restaurant, I looked at the person I saw this movie with as if to say, "Did they even employ an editor?" A huge let down from the guys that delivered A History of Violence.
No, I would NOT suggest it!
posted on 18 Aug 2009Badly concealed propaganda, with lots of cliché's ("The Americans and the NATO are in Afghanistan to –among fighting the Talibans- crack down on drugs commerce", "All Soviets were bad people", "A Soviet criminal's personal story is written over his body", the son's extreme behavior and hidden homosexuality etc.). With excessive, non-required violence (a characteristic of Cronenberg), homo-busted language… In the hands of a decent director, could still be a worthwhile film, as the story (with the motherless baby and the nurse's good intentions) is interesting indeed. Good acting, at least, esp. with Viggo Mortensen, who tried his best, spending time in ex-USSR, to prepare for his role.
wonderful film!
posted on 18 Aug 2009Viggo is incredible in this film. I really thought he deserved to win the Oscar. His performance is not flashy and dramatic but he buries himself so much into the character that you really believe him. I heard an interview when this film first came out and David Cronenberg talked about the in-depth research Viggo did for his part. It really shows. It's a great lesson in acting in doing your homework. You really believe he's from Russia. The supporting cast is great too. David Cronenberg is a fantastic director. I'm glad I finally got around to seeing this film. The Fly was amazing. History of Violence was great and this is another wonderful movie. I strongly recommend this film.
I don't know how it got a 7.9 rating
posted on 14 Aug 2009You have to be naive to believe this. Or you have to be incredibly generous to sit through and suffer the excruciatingly simple characters.Viggo was quite good and it was his performance that got me from the 30 minute mark all the way to the 45 minute mark, before I couldn't stand it anymore and had to turn it off.The English mother and daughter were bullet in the head material, but there was slim chance the director was going to do you that favour.The Godfather character was just that, a two dimensional cliché right from the outset.The dialogue was pathetic, although the exchanges in Russian didn't bother me at all, probably because it offered relief from having to listen to idiocy in English.In the end I had to turn it off, it was ridiculous.
Al Capone might not have liked 'The Untouchables'....but it's still a good movie.
posted on 14 Aug 2009THis is a great movie. The cast is incredible. Cronenberg's 'SHock and Awe' style is in full effect. The cinematography is excellent. THe story is solid. The fight scene in the sauna room is hands down one of the most unrelentingly awesome action sequences EVER. Sure, you'll have some Russian guys reviewing here..saying how inaccurate...how degrading this work is.... but the problem with that is Cronenberg's complete and utter command of his craft makes it believable to all those WHO AREN't ex-members of the Russian Mob. Viggo's character has incredible depth and his performance oozes realism. For David, this work is actually pretty tame...there isn't a bunch of extremely weird stuff here(other than a date reference early in the film which has me wondering). The clarity of every shot in this film is amazing....see it for yourself....unless of course, you're ex-Russian mafia.....and if you are...take no offense to this review as it IS after all ...just an opinion. You see...Cronenberg was so dead-on... he has me covering my tracks. If for no other reason....see it because DC is like a fine wine....getting even better with age.
Maybe at an art-house it would be good
posted on 14 Aug 2009The only point of the movie was "shock value" and it was not that shocking. While the graphic violence and unusual nude scenes make the movie uncomfortable to watch, the actual plot was both pointless and predictable. The movie drags slowly toward the eventual conclusion, which does not resolve much of anything. It looks like they might have been trying for a surprising plot twist near the end. However, if the "revelation" was supposed to be a "twist" then it was ineffective because it became obvious about a third of the way into the movie. Likewise, the same underlying plot has been repeatedly with the Italian Mafia in the United States, Asian organized crime in the United States, Asia, and various parts of the British Commonwealth, and Hispanic and black street-gangs in Los Angeles and New York. The only difference is that the fall of the iron curtain implies more recent immigration to the west.What is disappointing is that after seeing the movie is that I cannot tell why it got good reviews. Usually even if I do not like a movie I can tell why others would like it. In the case of Eastern Promises, the only thing I could see was graphic violence just for the sake of having graphic violence. The main "nude scene" seemed more like an attempt to make the audience uncomfortable than an attempt to advance the plot. Think of the nude scene in Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" but without any attempt at humor.A comparison of Eastern Promises to the 2005 David Cronenberg / Viggo Mortensen collaboration on "A History Of Violence" reminds me of the the comparison between 1992's "Batman Returns" and 1989's original "Batman." In both original movies, the darkness and violence were necessary for the plot. By contrast, 1992's "Batman Returns" was dark for the sake of being dark while "Eastern Promises" shows graphic violence for the sake of showing graphic violence. Neither the Batman Returns's darkness nor Eastern Promises violence can make up for the lack of an engaging story.
Disappointing
posted on 14 Aug 2009I had very high hopes for this one, what with the tremendous acting talent the director had at his disposal here. I'm a great fan of Viggo Mortenson, Naomi Watts and Armin Mueller-Stahl (whose performance as the Israeli Prime Minister on The West Wing was brilliant). And the actors delivered 100%...but as for the story, there just wasn't any "there" there. The movie seems to be building up to something momentous, but it fails to deliver. And everything gets tied-up in neat little bows at the end, which wildly contradicts the tone of the movie up to that point. Another really weird contradiction is the depiction of violence here, which goes well beyond gratuitous into the realm of disgust. The Godfather films contain at least as much violence as Eastern Promises, but they depict it in powerful images that support the storyline, rather than revolting images which distract from it. That just makes no sense with the actors working so hard to portray intelligent, complex characters.So overall, Eastern Promises was an unfortunate waste of some very good performances. I hope these actors get a better venue for their talents next time.
The movie seems a biggest hammer i ever saw.
posted on 12 Aug 2009This is one of the worst movie i ever saw. I would rather prefer watching some Indian flicks. The things did not like about this movies are, 1. Star casts 2. Miserable Ending 3. Poor thriller story. 4. 30 minutes thriller tale has been stretched unnecessarily.So, those who are interested to watch this movie please don't spend your time for such a worst thriller script of the year. In the starting it seems there will be something interesting come up later near the end of the movie but nothing does happen except the survival of the baby.Thanks,Himanshu
A True Classic
posted on 12 Aug 2009Well I don't hand out 10's quite that easily but this film blew me away and kept me staring at the screen in awe. David Cronenberg's film has everything you could ask for in a violent, raw, dramatic & suspenseful masterpiece. Now add to that one of the best performances by an actor who proves to be extremely versatile and nothing short of brilliant, I am off course referring to Viggo Mortensen who has taken a very brave decision of playing what turned out to be a character to be remembered as "Nikolay" (I'll spare the unnecessary spoilers). Even one of my least favourite actresses, Amy Watts, does nothing to spoil this film, all thanks to Cronenberg's ability to keep her in the boundaries of the character she plays who serves as a background to Mortensens chilling portrayal. London as in many cases proved a perfect stage for this kind of story line, it's not Hollywood, no booms, no bangs, no special effects and no super stars. Instead we get a great script, fantastic dialogues, brilliant acting and a top notch director capable of putting together "Eastern Promises" - a promise well delivered.
This movie is awful !!
posted on 12 Aug 2009I really cant understand how this movie got such a high rating. The more i think about it the wore it gets.The plot is so bad I cant believe someone actually likes this movie. How come the big bad ass Russian mafia makes deals with a girl (Naomi Watts)? Normally they would just kill her, maybe rape her before like the girl dying at the beginning. Why are they scared about 2 chechens? they found out name of the man that killed their brother but who would be fooled by such a bad setup? The son turns against the father real quick, why? There are a lot of scenes so boring and meaningless to the story, what for?The end is a joke!!!this is just boring and mindless. don't watch this movie!!
A great story and a real eye opener into the immigrant underworld in London
posted on 10 Aug 2009STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A man is executed gangland style in a barber's shop in London and mobsters Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and Kirill (Vincent Cassel) are assigned the task of getting rid of the body. Meanwhile, a girl goes into a shop bleeding heavily and dies after being rushed to hospital to give birth. The midwife who helped her Anna (Naomi Watts) finds a diary where she records her harrowing journey from her native land to London and how the father of her baby raped her. The lives of these three people are about to collide in an unthinkable and deadly way. Meanwhile, the criminal organization Nikolai and Kirill work for all have to be on their guard as the murdered man's brothers come looking for revenge.We read in the papers every single day lately about mass immigration in Britain and how foreigners seem to be out-ranking native British citizens as we lose control of our borders completely. And of course, we cannot ignore the criminal underworld the less desirable faction have set up, which has been allowed to fester in London. It is this that Eastern Promises casts a brutal and unflinching look into, telling a gripping and exciting story that doesn't hold back from showing the sordid reality of the problem in all it's nitty gritty. And all at just over an hour and a half! Director David Cronenberg and Midland writer (yay!) Steven Knight have crafted an ingenious story that will really open your eyes.Another high-point must also be the performances, which are excellent all round. Mortensen is great as the controlled, disciplined soldier of crime Nikolai, while Cassel goes from one extreme to the other as the callous, reckless wildchild Kirill. And Watts is also brilliant as the feisty, noble nurse determined to stand up to the villains and see the right outcome to the situation. And with other support, such as Armin Mueller Stahl as the Marlon Brando style Godfather of the crime family, things can only get better.Highly recommended all round. ****
Almost great movie, with great performances
posted on 04 Aug 2009Cronenberg follows up his critically (and I'm guessing financially) successful A History of Violence with another mob story, this time set amongst the Russian mafia in London. A midwife (Naomi Watts) delivers a baby to a dying Russian teenager. She takes her diary, in Russian, and tries to get it translated. Unfortunately, she walks straight into the people who were selling the teenager as a prostitute, a restaurateur (Armin Mueller-Stahl) whose business is merely a front. In reality, he's a mob boss. The mob boss's son (Vincent Cassel) has recently recruited his driver (Viggo Mortensen) into the mob. The story follows Mortensen, who becomes attracted to the midwife, while his bosses want her out of the picture.Cronenberg fans were mixed over A History of Violence. Many thought it was too mainstream. But it had a strange mood to it, and was definitely a stylized reality. That made it stand out from other films, in my opinion. I'm not sure I could fit it into Cronenberg's filmography very well, but, if I had seen it without knowing who directed it, I would certainly have known it was made by someone special. Eastern Promises, on the other hand, could easily have been made by pretty close to anyone else. Other than a couple of visceral moments, most notably the now infamous fight sequence that occurs late in the film – certainly one of the stand-out scenes of 2007 – the film is directed in a straightforward manner.*SPOILERS in the next paragraph* Steve Knight, who was nominated for an Oscar for Dirty Pretty Things several years ago, has a very good script here. I especially like the way he gets us thinking about Vincent Cassel's sexuality before the possibility is even uttered by the characters (and it's never confirmed). But I honestly didn't like the big twist with Mortensen's character. Turns out he's an undercover operative for the police. Much like Cassel's sexuality, this is hinted a few times, very subtly (I didn't notice it, but probably because I didn't want the story to go that way). To me, this route is uninteresting. I liked Mortensen's thug character so much, I was disappointed when it was revealed to be untrue. In addition to this, I thought the film's wrap-up didn't make much sense. Mortensen's supposed to be dead. While Mueller-Stahl is sent to prison, I don't quite believe Mortensen would be able to re-enter that society. Mueller-Stahl doesn't seem to be at the top of the Russian mafia, but he seems to be high enough up it where someone he decided to kill wouldn't last very long, even with Mueller-Stahl out of the picture.*END SPOILERS* All in all, I do think Eastern Promises is a very good picture, pretty close to being a great one. While the script has a couple of weaknesses, overall it's quite good. And the acting is through the roof. Mortensen, Cassel and Mueller-Stahl are all award-worthy. I don't think any of their chances are that great, though, for an Oscar nomination.
A Smart, Ruthless Thriller!
posted on 02 Aug 2009"Eastern Promises" is an unforgettable journey into London's dark underworld. It shows how the Russian mafia is both out of place, and at the same time in control of the city. Viggo Mortensen's performance is simply fantastic. I am not sure if this is a rumor or true, but supposedly he went around London while on break from filming, with his tattoos still painted on, and was believed to be a Russian mobster. That is how authentic he is in this film. And Naomi Watts holds her own on screen with him. Their chemistry is amazing, and you can't help but want to see them together despite how different their characters are. The film itself is very violent and unabashed, so be prepared. It is not for the faint of heart, but it certainly delivers an authenticity to that world. I am shocked this film didn't make a bigger splash, and that so many people out there have yet to see it. It is an awesome movie that will both shock and delight!
Over boring
posted on 02 Aug 2009If I did not take in account the over inflated good reviews , I was never renting this DVD .....I still cry for the money I spend so foolishly . Anyway is a bad bad bad experience ! The movie starts with a extra bad scene , somehow I made connection with an Italian movie where Alberto Sordi was transferred from Sicily to US and forced to kill an Italian-American mobster in a New York (I think....) barber shop , the clients they pretended to see no evil , hear no evil , A.S. he is doing his job and leaves . That scene was classical but the one in EASTERN PROMISES is hilarious : the old barber made all the hints possible to the young guy to finish the sitting customer ,first he (young) is closing the door then pulling the blinds , he is concealing ,,something" under the newspaper and then the customer is about to make acquaintance with him and shake hands he is sort of paralyzed he is not shaking hands , anyway the sitting guy who seems to be a tough guy he is killed by a retard and an old man. Only in movies !The cutting throat scene is untrue , I am not an anatomist to sense the ridicule of it !There is a long list of goofs and inadvertences , I am not gonna waste your time enumerating them all , other viewers already did that . Any comparison between EASTERN PROMISES and any another mobster movie : GODFATHER , GOODFELLAS , CORLEONE , LE CLAN DES SICILIENS.....etc is just inadequate. Some directors they use a cargo of violence in a movie to justify ,,real life" but all the gruesome scenes in this movie are pointless.The moral is : do not get impressed by other people's opinion , only YOUR opinion is important . To choose a good movie is a matter of luck , risk and personal taste after all.
It's got some chops
posted on 31 Jul 2009David Cronenberg shoots an unflinchingly brutal depiction of the Russian mob in London. It is often times difficult to make a believable movie about Russians without using real Russians. Viggo Mortenson did well in capturing the Eastern European look and wasn't horrible on the accent either. This film is delightfully brutal in the story telling. The statutory rape aspect of the plot is described and discussed in the film in a very cavalier fashion. And the fight scene in the bath house... well let's just say that it takes some chops to fight naked whether you're Russian mafia or not. As always, Cronenberg's signature graphic violence is present with rather explicit throat slitting and eye stabbing. The idea that these characters would use knives rather than guns is a good touch by Cronenberg. There is the statement in the film that one of the characters is "old school" KGB. In the old days, the line between the KGB and the mafia were extremely difficult to see. And both learned the value of doing things efficiently while also being thrifty. Knives are a thrifty way to kill someone. They can be made from extremely cheap materials, they don't require ammo and can be reused many times without the possibility that ballistics can identify them. But while anyone can pull a trigger and shoot someone, it takes some serious will power to do the work of stabbing someone to death, especially with the short blades they were using in the film. So a fresh, gritty, gangster movie on an often overlooked group of underdwellers.
An utterly dull and pathetic attempt to portray Russian mafia
posted on 31 Jul 2009I am astonished that so many viewers have given this film high ratings. I tend to think that if you are going to do something, you should do it right -- a principle which the director of this film was obviously oblivious to or chose to avoid.Despite the fact that the actors actually tried to learn some of their Russian lines and worked on their Russian accents, it still felt very fake and contrived. When trying to please Western audiences and appealing to their sense of what being Russian is all about, it is sufficient to throw in prostitutes, vodka and plenty of 'R's. And that's precisely what was done in this movie. But why go through all the trouble of forcing the poor actors to memorize lines in Russian? If you wanted the film to be authentic, you should have used Russian-speaking actors in the first place, not a bunch of old farts that can't speak the language and don't look even remotely Russian. Same goes for Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen, who look about as Russian as Mr. Bean.If the director was trying to be original, why didn't he use some Punjabi actors to play the Russian mafia? I am sure they could roll their 'R's much better too. As long as you make sure there is a bottle of (unidentifiable) vodka or a naked whore in every scene, it will surely spell R-U-S-S-I-A to our sophisticated Western viewers. And to spice things up, throw in the most artificial and boring plot ever. Overall, the film is some of the most nonsensical garbage I've seen in a long time. I suggest the director actually see some Russian mafia before attempting to make a film about it.
Some very memorable scenes in an entertaining movie - which has no humanitarian or intellectual heft.
posted on 30 Aug 2009This is the background of the story: The movie is about Russians living in London, and their organized crime gangs. A father (Semyon, Amin Mueller-Stahl) and a drunken son (Kirill, Vincent Cassel) are important smugglers and restaurant owners. They employ Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) who gradually gets involved with the gang. In the meantime, an underage Russian prostitute dies during childbirth, and she was some sort sex slave associated with Russian criminals. A Russian nurse (Anna, Naomi Watts) has compassion for the dead mother and the baby, and tries to find the father. This leads to a complicated plot with some interesting twists in the end. The movie has lots of memorable graphic images. There are unexpected killings, violent sex, and naked wrestling far more brutal than in Borat. I enjoyed the movie. It had a nice blend of action and drama with enough story to keep thread together the memorable (violent/sexual) action scenes. While Semyon's family begins to look like the Godfather's Corleones it does not really; the family is not developed; there are little love in that family. There are few likable characters aside from Anna (Naomi Watts) and perhaps her Mom. The movie is a simple genre picture for entertainment only. It does a nice job of creating the enigmatic character of Nikolai, but I don't think that the drama rises to the level where we get a new insight about human nature. Viggo Mortensen does an especially nice job. I don't think the movie has a social message either. Because of the high level of violence and the lack of a social purpose to justify it, I can't recommend this movie highly, although the acting and directing are superb, the movie as a whole is merely a worthy effort.