GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Eastern Promises

Naomi Watts

Viggo Mortensen

Roadshow Films

October 25th 2007

Set in London, Eastern Promises tells the story of a Russian crime family. When Anna accidentally stumbles into their dark world, she soon finds her life and the life of her family at stake.

Mortensen plays Nikolai, a tough talking and very violent man working for the Russian mafia as a driver. By the most unusual circumstances his paths crosses with Anna, a simple woman. While working in a hospital she finds a diary belonging to a fourteen-year-old whore who just gave birth to a baby girl.

As Anna’s background is Russian she asks her uncle to translate the young girls diary. We soon find out that this young woman was raped and that the child could be related to a high ranking mafia boss. Anna immediately finds out that he life is at risk and must do everything that she can to protect those around her.

Eastern Promises is another fine film from the extremely talented David Cronenberg, who brought us last years A History of Violence. The pairing of Watts and Mortensen was nicely done even though I was initially sceptical. There are some brilliant fight scenes that fans of Cronenberg;s work with eat up. Overall this is a strong film with some very real themes.

Marcus Richa