A cast of shady characters, scenes of inappropriate gore and a ten-minute fight sequence featuring a completely naked Viggo? Must be a Cronenberg flick.
Two years ago David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, the first collaboration between the cult director and actor Viggo Mortensen, went largely unnoticed by the Academy and mainstream audiences alike, despite near-universal praise from critics. Undaunted, they've teamed up again for Eastern Promises, a riveting new thriller set in the bleak world of London's Russian Mafia.
The movie begins in typical Cronenberg fashion (read: violent and gruesome), with a barbershop throat-slashing followed by a woman dying in childbirth. The connection between the two disparate -- and yet equally unsettling -- scenes becomes apparent through the efforts of Anna (Naomi Watts), a determined midwife who makes it her mission to contact the girl's family in the hopes of finding a proper home for the orphaned child.
Anna's search leads her to London's Russian quarter, where she meets Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen), a limo driver and part-time mortician for the privileged, sadistic son of prominent Russian crime boss. Unlike his more ruthless counterparts, Nikolai possesses something of a conscience, and when his bosses order him to dispatch the pesky midwife for asking too many questions, he can't bring himself to do it. Thus the stage is set for violent confrontation between Nikolai and his former mafia pals, featuring the aforementioned naked knife fight.
While Eastern Promises is 100% Cronenberg, the real star of the show is Mortensen, who makes a powerful case for a Best Actor Oscar nomination.
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