Mikey Boom

Yesterday I got a chance to catch an advanced screening of David Cronenberg’s new Russian Gangster Thriller “Eastern Promises” with post movie Q&A from the director himself. If you are asking yourself, “Where have I heard that name before?” David Cronenberg is the same dude who did History of Violence, The Fly, and Scanners. So you can sort of tell this movie isn’t really going to hold back any punches. The movie has a great cast. Naomi Watts (The Ring) plays the lead female role. Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) plays Nikolai, the lead male role. And Vincent Cassel (Oceans 13) is great in his supporting actor role as ‘Kirill’. The screenplay was written from the same writer as “Pretty Dirty Things” Steven Knight.

After being herded into the small but comfortable Director’s Guild Theatre on 57^th and 6^th in Manhattan I was ready to hop on the Croneneberg Violence express. His movies, I find, tend to be very intense with heavy tones of “justified” violence and human aggression. The movie opens up to a very stereotypical gangster scene with your typical execution at a barber shop. Fortunately, every scene after the opening is anything but typical. Right after the execution, there is a scene of a woman giving birth and here we are introduced to one of the many opposing forces which truly make this movie worthwhile and exciting to watch. In fact, I found the overall pace of the movie to be quite sluggish (with exceptions here and there). If it wasn’t for the multitude of opposing themes (light vs. dark, death vs. birth, violence vs. tenderness) that cloud the movie from start to finish, I don’t think I would have liked it so much.

There was one scene in particular that stands out for me and I am sure it will stand out for you if and when you see it. The scene will most likely make many Top 10 lists for Violence and just as an overall kick ass action scene. It takes place in a sauna and I don’t want to give anything away because I think it’s such an awesomely well done intelligent and artistic scene but I will say this: be prepared for a no holds barred naked knife fight between Viggo and some gangsters. As I say that I realize that there is no way you will be prepared for this so just try your best not to look away at any time during this blood fest of a fight scene. According to the director the scene was filmed in 2 days and was meant to show Viggo’s character in a state of vulnerability. In this state of vulnerability, the audience may question whether or not violence is justified. For example, a cornered animal is more justified in its attack.

Overall, I thought that “Eastern Promises” is an intelligent, artistic, and aggressive film from a director that I consider to be one of the top directors in the game. His films are innovative, progressive and iconic in this genre. When watching a Cronenberg, expect the unexpected, be ready for anything, but most of all look forward to being wowed.