Directed by: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortenson, Naomie Watts, Vincent Cassel
Rating: R

Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortenson in Eastern Promises. (Courtesy photo)

Director David Cronenberg has dwelled in dark places for his entire career. When he is at his best, those places become a living part of the story (Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch). When he misses, the results can be humorous and even bleed into the offensive (The Brood, Crash). In 2005 critics went bonkers over his graphic novel adaptation A History of Violence. I thought it was simplistic, nicely-acted nonsense. Cronenberg is back, joined again by star Viggo Mortenson, in another view of a dark, violent world. Eastern Promises is nearly everything A History of Violence wasn’t—everything seems murky, from the story to the characters to the morality. Like many Cronenberg movies, Eastern Promises feels strangely truncated. And some will find the third act twists a little hard to take. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about them, but I can say that I would happily watch the film again to help decide.

A pregnant young Russian woman stumbles into an all-night pharmacy in grimiest London. She collapses to the floor, spilling blood everywhere. She is rushed to the hospital, where her baby is safely delivered. But the young mother expires. Anna (Naomie Watts) is the nurse on duty that night. She is determined to spare the infant girl from a life of foster care. The woman has no identification, but Anna uses her diary to track down her family. She ends up at the restaurant of Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who claims not to know the girl but offers to translate the diary from Russian into English. Anna reluctantly agrees. There is a definite air of danger around Semyon, certainly his fiery son Kirill (Vincent Cassel). Most disturbing of all may be the tight-lipped driver Nikolai (Viggo). In spite of the adamant protests of her mother (Sinead Cusack) and uncle (Jerzy Skolimowski), Anna is drawn inextricably into the darker world of Semyon and his clan.

Whereas Violence never felt like more than a glorified cartoon, the Russian mafia portrayed in Eastern Promises feels terrifyingly real. We fear for Anna’s safety the way we would for a deer walking through a forest of drunken hunters. The plight of the young Russian woman and others like her is only shown a little—a good thing, because it would have crushed any hope out of the story. Yet strangely, Cronenberg’s film is surprisingly buoyant. He and screenwriter Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) achieve the impossible by actually getting us to like the brutal Nikolai. The plot itself is compelling enough to engage us completely, even when daring to push us away with explicit violence. Eastern Promises is, underneath it all, a relatively uncomplicated thriller. But it is the rare piece of film that offers us no assurance of a happy ending. We go along knowing that there may be no justice waiting for us at the end of this trial, but we keep watching anyway.

Much of the credit must go to Viggo. The deeply talented Mortenson is not an easy guy to cast, yet Cronenberg has found his new screen alter ego. Nikolai is a fascinating creation, a man who often seems no more expressive than a stone carving. Mortenson has no interest in letting us off the hook. He forces us to engage Nikolai, whether we want to or not. He is too mesmerizing to look away from. Just as good is veteran Armin Mueller-Stahl. Few are better than the great Prussian actor (Shine, The West Wing) at mixing doddering charm and deadly menace. Both of these men deserve recognition, come awards season. Naomie Watts is very good as a woman who knows she is completely over her head, with justice as her only weapon. Her role is not as large as it would seem to be, but Watts is such a natural, vulnerable performer, she makes a strong impression. Sinead Cusack (V For Vendetta, Stealing Beauty) and Jerzy Skolimowski (writer/director of the acclaimed film Moonlighting) are both very good and very real. Only Vincent Cassel falls short of the bar. Cassel has a wonderfully craggy face and plenty of charisma, but the French actor has not been able to translate these into a consistently good English language performance (Ocean’s 12, Elizabeth). He will eventually.

Most likely thanks to its terrible title, Eastern Promises is not drawing anywhere near the same kinds of audiences as A History Of Violence. This is not a movie for all audiences. The bloodshed is shown in unflinching close-up, and the abuse is of a very adult nature. But this little gem of a movie earns its blood. The script is effective as long as you don’t study the details too closely. And the performances are almost all top notch. Certainly fans of Cronenberg and Viggo should see Eastern Promises without hesitation. All others proceed at your own risk.

Alex Manugian lives in Sherman Oaks, California, and works for the Cartoon Network. He grew up in Groton and has reviewed movies for Harvard residents for many years.