Eastern Promises may not be all their cracked up to be. (Eastern Promises (DVD))

Name: AprilMay

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Product:	Eastern Promises (DVD)
Date:	29/06/08 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slick, cool, entertaining.

Disadvantages: Storytelling is a little flat in places.

The latest offering from director David Cronenberg, the man behind that brilliant film The Naked Lunch, is nothing if not hard-hitting. It doesn't have the gore-porn factor of horror films like Hostel or the Saw series, but it is certainly very gritty and makes a point of not sanitising the violence in the film for viewers. Telling the story of a Russian mafia family under investigation by police, a chauffer who wants to be the king pin (Viggo Mortenson), and a midwife (Naomi Watson) who discovers a horrible secret that draws her into this underworld, the film is reasonably gripping and very dark. It can be conceptualised as a sort of Russian mafia version of the Godfather. In fact it probably draws a lot on the audience's understanding of crime families from those films. The only somewhat new thing here is the way that the Russian gangsters are shown to focus on tattoos as a way of marking and proving oneself.

The settings are lush and almost always dark. The costumes are sleek but fairly minimal with a slightly dark edge to them - even for the supposed 'good guys'. It is, in short, a film that glories in its own griminess. This works in a lot of ways and does make for a unifying and somewhat cool veneer for the film. It's good fun to watch - even the Russian accents are at least within the realms of believability (the only one I found slightly grating being the dead girl's narration).

The problems sink in mostly once you've finished watching the film. There seem to be huge holes in the plot that aren't explained and aren't even significantly obfuscated through other directorial techniques. This made for a disappointing post-viewing dissection of the film. Plus there were a few too many blindingly obvious plot give-aways through the film. This could work if it was better set up as a dramatic irony situation (the audience knows what the character does not and therefore suspense builds), or if there had been sufficient red-herrings or false leads that there would still be some surprise when the events actually do unfold.

Basically, I enjoyed watching this film. I liked the frank and unabashed approach to what is essentially very brutal subject matter (although I must say at the end of the scene in the Russian baths I thought they took it a little too far!). I think though, that ultimately the film was let down by a slightly unsophisticated approach to the story-telling element. This is a good, solid film with reasonably solid performances and directing, but certainly not Cronenberg's best work.

Summary: Three out of five stars.