Eastern Promises

Set in London, the story opens with a dead mother, a healthy newborn and a diary written in Russian. Anna (Watts) a mid-wife, searches for answers to the diary by going to a local restaurant, whose business card was in the diary, to have it translated. She inadvertently stumbles upon a world of criminal activity.
What I loved about this movie was the ease at which director David Cronenberg unites two very different worlds and also separates them. The first world includes Anna, her mother and Uncle and the other world, the criminal world, includes Nikolai (Mortensen), Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and Russian restaurant owner, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who also is the boss of the family. At times, these two worlds converge, inviting great dialogue and connection. At other times they diverge, going their separate directions, inviting the brutal, violent, graphic scenes as well as the connections the characters within each world share.
Both Anna and Nikolai have a focus throughout the movie that seem to never fade or wonder (Much like the entire movie). We learn early on the focus of Anna but Mortensen’s character Nikolai and his rock like stature reveal nothing till the very end.
Eastern Promises is a brutal, deeply layered and elegant film. Nothing is out of place with each scene carrying a purpose. It’s the type of movie I long for but that not everyone can stand.

A