Eastern Promises

I have to say, I was disappointed in "Eastern Promises." I had looked forward to seeing it.

We started watching this movie night before last and then stopped. When we stopped, my 16 year old daughter was outraged, wanting to keep on watching until the end. "I like this movie! I don't usually like the movies you get about Russians!" she protested. [Nevertheless, bedtime is between 9 and 9:30. Unlike her little brother, she gets the added bonus of me not fussing at her if she wants to stay up and read a while.]

Last night when the movie ended, however. I must confess I was irritated. More on that in a minute.

First, the title is annoying. "Eastern Promises"? Sounds like a geography textbook. Has nothing to do with London [where the fiml is set] or Russia.

Second, I was expecting a clever thriller, which is what a couple of reviews led me to believe that it was. Well, I guess if you're a moron it's suspenseful, but I was not wondering about anything, by the end. I was more fascinated by how the 3 main guys playing Russian mafia were doing with their Russian accents, since they were American, French, and German. In my view, Viggo Mortenson [the American] did the best job. The French guy "looked" more Russian, as my daughter said. I agreed. Viggo got the accent right, though. And there were a couple of scenes where he had a fair amount of dialogue, and it sounded utterly natural.

Naomi Watts played the young British midwife who delivered a baby of a young girl who had been kidnapped by the main mafia don. She was excellent, as always. She embues characters with a lot of depth, even when the roles are rather sketchily written. She was the best thing about the idiotic recent remake of King Kong, for instance. This part, however, didn't give her enough to do.

There were aggravating inconsistencies in the story. The Russians in the film are supposed to be trafficking in young Russian girls and using them as prostitutes against their will. How exactly all that worked was never clear. That's a fascinating part of the story. Instead of exploring it more, we got long scenes of sex and gore, like Viggo's character cutting the fingers off a corpse, or fighting thugs in a bath-house, naked. There's even one scene of him having rather realistic looking sex with one of the prostitutes. [I covered my son's eyes up for that one, and turned down the sound.] There was a lot of discussion of tattoos. I didn't really see the necessity for so much of that.

Maybe because I had just finished watching "Reds," my expectations were too high. This film didn't have the character development, the discussions about ideas, the cultural depth. I didn't realize until I was looking online earlier that it was directed by David Cronenberg, who directed The Fly. I liked that movie when it came out, years ago, but it was not serious.

Mother was irritated with me for letting the kids watch the movie. [She walked through the room at one point and bellowed "Why do you let them watch this stuff!" during the naked fight scene.] I probably wouldn't have let Michael watch if I had realized quote how graphic the sex and violence were going to be. However, the sad fact is that my kids are far less innocent than most kids their age. Orphanages are tough places. My son lived on the streets for a while before he got sent to the orphanage. So they have seen a lot. There's not much sheltering I can do. I don't allow horror movies in my house; I have to draw the line there.

I also have a pretty jaded, cynical view of Russian mafia. The violence and disregard for human life happen there [like everywhere] and Russians can seem menacing and brutal. However, in this film it almost felt like they were exploiting that cultural bias. I can hear the pitch now: "It's like The Godfather, but with the RUSSIAN mafia!"

I think it's very possible that someone less familiar with Russia and Russians might find this a fascinating movie. If you're also not real familiar with The Godfather trilogy, you might really like it. If you are, in fact, a moron, it will likely shock the socks off you.

I just didn't care for it much at all.

Comments

[Ok, Where Was I?]

Came over from Hallie's. If I haven't gotten too confused by opening too many tabs at once, you're the one who left the description of how perfect Atlanta is? If that's wrong, well, I'm just an idiot. It was someone else's blog. If that was you, I'm totally ready to move. Sounds great. And now I'm ready to check out naked Viggo too.

[Hallie]

But I want to move to Florida!!!

We have actually planned to move there long before Shmoops enlisted. JOhn had major back surgery and can't stand the cold.

I don't know anything about Atlanta. You have 4 years to convince me!!

Hallie :)