Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises (***1/2)

Based on its opening scene, Eastern Promises seems like a pretty standard mobster movie. We see a guy in a barber's chair getting a shave and a haircut, as another man enters and closes the blinds. The customer soon realizes that the barber's friendly chit-chat was a ruse for his guard to be let down, and before he can get up out of his chair, the barber holds him down as man who recently entered quickly slits his throat with business-like efficiency. This scene is merely the hook though, and the rest of the movie is less of a series of whackings and shifting alliances that a lot of crime dramas often turn in to, and more of an exploration of what happens when the world of the mafia--the Russian mafia in this case--starts to collide with the world at large. Like, A History of Violence, the movie David Cronenberg directed before he directed this one, its done in a much quieter and more matter-of-fact style than a lot of other crime movies of the same ilk. There's nothing as operatic as the baptism scene in The Godfather, and the body count is less than most mob movies in general, but, in a way, the stark reality of the movie's style makes the violence that is on screen that much more brutal.

Our protagonist is Anna (Naomi Watts), who works in a maternity ward in a London hospital. A young pregnant girl is brought to her hospital after collapsing and hemorrhaging blood at a pharmacy. The baby is saved, but the mother dies, leaving no form of identification, except a handwritten diary written in Russian. Knowing that, without having any sort of immediate family member, the baby will be relegated to the slow-moving bureaucracy of the adoption system, Anna takes it upon herself to search the diary for clues. Anna, it so happens, is of Russian descent, and takes the diary back home and shows it to her uncle. After he seems unwilling at first to translate it, Anna finds her way to a restaurant owned by Semyon, who at first glance appears to be nothing more than a simple, kind-hearted, elderly man. Semyon agrees to translate the diary, but seems to have oddly specific terms for how exactly the logistics of it are to work out, and seems to be somewhat angry when Anna returns to him without the actual diary but rather with photocopies of it. Of course, as we the viewer learn quickly, he's not as all as he appears to be, and the restaurant is a front for Semyon's crime family--part of the "Vory v Zakone", which the special features tell me translates to roughly something like "Thieves in law."

Anna's uncle apparently gains a sudden curiosity, finds the original diary in Anna's room, and begins to read it. Upon discovering that the details of it are quite disturbing, and that the Vory v Zakone are involved, he frantically tells Anna to drop the issue. However, as Anna begins to understand the nature of Semyon and his associates, she reads between the lines of her conversations with him and comes to the conclusion that the baby's life is threatened so long as they hold the diary. Thus, Anna, her uncle, and her mother reluctantly become further involved in the matter, and attempt to make a deal with Semyon's people, despite her uncle's warning that these really aren't the types of people that anyone should make deals with.

While this is going on, we also meet Nikolai, played by Viggo Mortensen, who also teamed up with Cronenberg in History of Violence and clearly has a good working relationship going with him. He portrays Nikolai as a cold, unfeeling, sinister mob enforcer, and for much of the movie that's because that's exactly what he would seem to be, although there's a key revelation towards the movie's conclusion which completely changes his character. Nikolai is trying to break into Semyon's crime family, and certainly seems to have both the requisite skills and disposition for it, as we see him in an early seen casually snipping off the fingers of a frozen corpse to prevent anyone from getting fingerprints off of it. As he proves his loyalty, Nikolai follows around Kirill, Semyon's son, whose biggest interest seems to be drinking heavily, and who seems to alternate between liking Nikolai and wanting him to suceed and resenting him for being the "new guy" in between bouts of drunkeness.

One of the more fascinating aspects of the movie--and one of the reasons why its worthwhile to watch a movie about the Russian mafia even if you've seen dozens of movies about the Italian mafia, or Irish mafia, or the Yakuza, or whatever--is its exploration into the practice of tattooing. There's such a thing as a "prison tattoo" in American culture, and if you've ever watched a Japanese Yakuza movie you know they're big on tatooing as well, but Russian tattoos have a certain intricasy that exists nowhere else. Supposedly, if you're in the know, you can essentially a Russian mobster's life story based on what tattoos he has. One of the more interesting scenes has Nikolai basically being studied head to toe in a shadowy room by a group of elderly mobsters to determine if he's truly worth of getting the Vory v Zakone stars tattooed onto him. Its clear watching the movie that a tremendous amount of study and labor was put into making Nikolai's tattoos completely accurate to real life. According to the special features, Viggo Mortensen went to Russia and did a great deal of research on his own in this regard.

As the movie heads towards its climax, more and more of the diary's contents are revealed, and why Semyon and his son Kirill don't want it out in the open. At the same time, the fallout from death we see at the beginning of the movie leads to a bloody conflict between rival mobsters complete with the deception and entangling alliances that you'd expect from any good organized crime movie. As I said though, Cronenberg's stark realism gives the movie a slightly different tone than a lot of such movies, and makes the death seem much less like simple Grand Theft Auto-esque exploitation and much more hard-hitting and disturbing. At times, I think there's perhaps too much of his quiet, minimalist style, to the point where we don't learn enough about the characters. The movie's plot is certainly complete. But I think there's more that could have been delved into regarding the standoffish relationship between Nikolai and Kirill, or the tense moments when Anna confronts Nikolai about the violent realities of what he does, only to have him reply "I am merely driver. I go left I go right. I go straight." The movie is pretty short at just over an hour and a half, and I felt it could've held my interest for much longer. IMDB tells me that there might be a sequel in the works with Cronenberg and Mortensen both returning. Normally, this wouldn't seem like the sort of movie that would have a sequel, or that could benefit from one. But I think there's a lot left unexplored about Mortensen's character, and especially about what you learn about the true nature of his character by the end of the movie that could be built on. I'd certainly be interested in seeing the sequel if it happened.