Eastern Promises

 2/4

Starring: Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl

Rated R for Strong Brutal and Bloody Violence, Some Graphic Sexuality, Language and Nudity

When you watch "Eastern Promises," you wonder where this movie went wrong.  Usually when you have a bad movie, it's easy to place the blame.  The actors are miscast, the film was hacked apart in the editing room, or maybe it was just a bad idea from the start.  Not so with "Eastern Promises," a film that should be fantastic but is instead stuck in neutral from beginning to end.

Consider now what the movie has going for it.  A-listers Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.  The irreplaceable Armin Mueller-Stahl.  And the always colorful Vincent Cassel.  Behind the camera is the quirky David Cronenberg.  And they're all working from a screenplay by Steven Knight, who would go on to write and direct beneath-the-radar gems "Locke" and "Redemption."  That's a lot of talent.

Anna (Watts) is a midwife at a London hospital trying to save the life of a young woman experiencing a difficult delivery.  She doesn't survive, but her baby does.  Anna tries to do the right thing and contact the next-of-kin, but the only thing that identifies the woman is a diary that she was carrying, and it's written in Russian.  Inside the diary is a card for a restaurant, so she goes looking for answers.  That puts her in touch with mafia boss Semyon (Mueller-Stahl), Semyon's psychotic son Kirill (Cassel), and their mysterious driver, Nikolai (Mortensen).

The film's biggest problem is that "Eastern Promises" has no plot.  Or at least not one that feels like it goes anywhere.  Each new revelation is so low-key that neither the story nor the characters grow.  They stagnate.  There are a few moments in the film that are meant to be shocking, but aside from the brutality of the violence, they might as well be establishing shots.

The actors do what they can to make their paper thin characters into unique individuals.  But they're cliches.  Anna is the woman with a heart of gold and a sad past.  Nikolai is the tough guy who isn't as bad as he seems.  Semyon is the man whose grandfatherly image hides his violent nature.  And Kirill is a lunatic with daddy issues.  Yawn.  There's certainly no rule that says that familiar character types are a bad thing, but they have to develop in interesting ways.  That doesn't happen here.  The characters don't change at all.  They never gain our interest.

I've always found David Cronenberg to be overrated.  He's no hack, to be sure, but his films aren't as good as their reputation suggests.  His version of "The Fly," "Scanners," "eXistenZ," "A History of Violence."  Both had intriguing ideas, but little follow through.  "Eastern Promises" has the same problem.  It has a promising idea that doesn't deliver.

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