EASTERN PROMISES
5 out of 5 stars

tatiana: "my name is tatiana. my father died in the mines in my village, so he was already buried when he died. we were all buried there. buried under the soil of russia. that is why I left, to find a better life."


one of my FAVORITE movies of all time, and possibly the BEST portrayal of the russian mob! this is a great movie to watch, esp. with a bowl of beef stroganoff in hand... :) (tip: beef stroganoff + chopped fresh dill + sour cream = WIN!)

anna (naomi watts) is a midwife, who accidentally discovers a diary in the personal affects of a young teenage pregnant girl, who dies on her shift. she asks her cantankerous uncle stephan to translate the diary for her, and finds out the gory details of the young girl's rape and subsequent pregnancy with the child of a member of the vory v zakone. (translation: the russian mafia) she finds an old business card for a russian restaurant in downtown london, and finds out that the owner, semyon (the always awesome armin mueller-stahl), wants to obtain the diary to destroy the evidence... there, she learns of semyon's abusive son kirill (french actor vincent cassel) and his partner-in-crime/"just a driver" nikolai (a convincingly scary viggo mortensen). of course, kirill and nikolai have their own problems such as dealing with the consequences of murdering one of their own. (watch for how nikolai professionally processes the body!) there's a little bit more to this story of the russian mob lifestyle, and the beauty of this movie is that it's done in a very realistic way that leaves you wanting more...

the best part of this movie is definitely the well-written script, the awesome acting, and viggo mortensen. he OWNS this movie by getting into such great character...all the way down to subtle mannerisms, the accent, the hairstyle, everything! TRUE method acting @ its finest! (i'm very disappointed in the academy for not giving him an oscar in this particular role...) i've always been a big fan of david cronenberg, who directed a history of violence (another great mob based movie), and i really like the fact that a lot of research was done on the russian mob's code of conduct as well as the emphasis on how one's sins are depicted by the many tattoos one has. these are ppl you don't mess with, for sure... and, that's apparent in the script, so this isn't your typical gun fight/action movie. be prepared to be analytical while viewing and pay attention!

p.s. watch out for one of the BEST SCENES in cinema for its originality and direction: the public bath house fight!