Movies: Eastern Promises

I saw this movie this past Saturday, and I must say that I was quite impressed. The only David Cronenberg I saw was "The Fly" with Jeff Goldblum. I've been meaning to see "A History of Violence" for while now, but I have since added it to my Netflix movie queue because of this movie.

Plot Summary via imdb.com:

The film follows the mysterious and ruthless Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), who is tied to one of London's most notorious organized crime families. His carefully maintained existence is jarred when he crosses paths with Anna (Naomi Watts), an innocent midwife trying to right a wrong, who accidentally uncovers potential evidence against the family. Now Nikolai must put into motion a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution.

I went with some people who felt that the pace was a bit slow, but I don't feel that way. The film's pace is perfect because it allows the audience to get pulled into the story. The film is, at times, very brutal with its depictions of volience. Oddly, what I like most about Easter Promises is the brutality with the absence of guns. There are a couple of very gruesome scenes, but in the film, it seemed to be necessary in order to give the audience a bit more insight of the characters.

Nikolai's (Viggo Mortensen) fight scene near the end of the film is done completely nude with full frontal nudity. In context, the nudity seems incidental and it barely took me out of the film. The nudity seemed necessary.

The end of the film didn't feel like an ending ... if anything, I felt the movie was too short. I think there was a love triangle between Nikolai, Anna (Naomi Watts) and Kirill (Vincent Cassell). There were a lot of homo-erotic undertones with Nikolai and Kirill. When Anna seemed to get the attention of Nokolai, Kirill got weirdly possessive. I was very intrigued by relationship between all of the characters.

If you aren't terribly squeamish, you should see this movie.