The second collaborative effort of filmmaker
David Cronenberg and actor
Viggo Mortensen doesn’t quite live up to their first outing. While both this film and their first dramatic venture,
A History of Violence, share a lot in common including the same visual style and smooth pace,
Eastern Promises winds up being a much more
ordinary movie than you’d expect from Cronenberg as a director.
If it weren’t for the brilliant job done by Mortensen as a ruthless Russian mobster and by Naomi Watts as a concerned midwife, Eastern Promises could be considered a real step down from A History of Violence. However, Mortensen and Watts lift Eastern Promises up and it’s because of their performances this movie works reasonably well as a character-driven drama, rather than a straight-up thriller.
