I watched Eastern promises last weekend because I found the last collaboration between Cronenburg and Viggo Mortensen, A History Of Violence, to be be completely enthralling.
This film is not quite as good as A History Of Violence but very watchable nonetheless.
A teenage Russian girl dies during childbirth in London. The attending midwife uncovers some dark secrets in the girl's diary which results in the midwife lifting the lid on the Russian underworld in the streets of London.
Like A History Of Violence, the violence is suitably visceral and brutal.
Naomi Watts doesn't really have a lot to do.
Some might say the film borders on racial stereotype - but I think it does a half-decent job of exploring the post-Soviet Russian emigre psyche. I say this with a slightly dubious level of qualification because I have dealt with a number of Russians in my work and I recognise some of the characteristics and nuances portrayed in the film.
It is, however, unfortunate that none of the main Russian characters are actually played by Russians - this detracts from the authenticity of the film's subject matter.
This is not the only issue I have with the film.
The first problem with the film is that it's full of caricatures rather than characters.
This is particularly the case with the core triumvirate of Russian protagonists Semyon, Kirill and Nicolai. None of them are very real, they are very cliched and glaringly so.
You would recognise them in any gangster/mafia film - all you would need to do is change the accent to American, Irish, Cockney or whatever.
Cronenburg makes no effort to flesh out these identikit characters with any kind of more individual background story, unusual relationship or motivation.
The second problem is that I am not sure what the film is really about.
Is it about the world of trafficking human beings? If so, there's been much better material out there already.
Is it about the seamier side of life in the Big City? The distasteful activities happening just under the surface that we probably all inadvertently touch in some way but never really see.
Is it about the normal set of emotions and relationship issues that even sociopaths in our midst will experience?
It's difficult to tell what Cronenburg is trying to get at because he doesn't explore any of these issues with enough depth.
In the end, you end up wishing the film was either slightly longer or told the story of fewer characters but in more detail.
It's still a very watchable film and Viggo Mortensen, in particular, commands attention in every scene he's in. Mark Commode, on the BBC, called Mortensen the new DeNiro - an analogy that is not without merit.
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This film is not quite as good as A History Of Violence but very watchable nonetheless.
A teenage Russian girl dies during childbirth in London. The attending midwife uncovers some dark secrets in the girl's diary which results in the midwife lifting the lid on the Russian underworld in the streets of London.
Like A History Of Violence, the violence is suitably visceral and brutal.
Naomi Watts doesn't really have a lot to do.
Some might say the film borders on racial stereotype - but I think it does a half-decent job of exploring the post-Soviet Russian emigre psyche. I say this with a slightly dubious level of qualification because I have dealt with a number of Russians in my work and I recognise some of the characteristics and nuances portrayed in the film.
It is, however, unfortunate that none of the main Russian characters are actually played by Russians - this detracts from the authenticity of the film's subject matter.
This is not the only issue I have with the film.
The first problem with the film is that it's full of caricatures rather than characters.
This is particularly the case with the core triumvirate of Russian protagonists Semyon, Kirill and Nicolai. None of them are very real, they are very cliched and glaringly so.
You would recognise them in any gangster/mafia film - all you would need to do is change the accent to American, Irish, Cockney or whatever.
Cronenburg makes no effort to flesh out these identikit characters with any kind of more individual background story, unusual relationship or motivation.
The second problem is that I am not sure what the film is really about.
Is it about the world of trafficking human beings? If so, there's been much better material out there already.
Is it about the seamier side of life in the Big City? The distasteful activities happening just under the surface that we probably all inadvertently touch in some way but never really see.
Is it about the normal set of emotions and relationship issues that even sociopaths in our midst will experience?
It's difficult to tell what Cronenburg is trying to get at because he doesn't explore any of these issues with enough depth.
In the end, you end up wishing the film was either slightly longer or told the story of fewer characters but in more detail.
It's still a very watchable film and Viggo Mortensen, in particular, commands attention in every scene he's in. Mark Commode, on the BBC, called Mortensen the new DeNiro - an analogy that is not without merit.
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