Eastern Promises
_________________________________
Director : David Cronenberg
Writer : Steven Knight
Actors : Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahland and others...
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Overall : 5.5/10
Direction : 5.5/10
Acting : 6.0/10
Cinematography : 5.5/10
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Eastern Promises is nothing more than a bravely foolish attempt at creating the never-needed Russian version of The Godfather.
You have an old patriarch at the head of the business, one hot-headed son and an budding mafia leader in the making. The ingredients are there to be fused together. The ultimate dish, though, disappoints.
The plot is alright for a mafia movie, that much I should clarify. The execution? Not even close.
Cronenberg was obviously of the opinion that more blood and gore will add a touch of realism to the movie. In fact, the beginning of the movie has as much blood-spilling as that in Saw or Grudge. Repulsive nature of some of the scenes aside, there is not much of note in this bland flick.
The director's mediocrity filters down to the cast.
The actors are nowhere near their potential. Normally, a cast featuring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen would have taken my breath away. Quite to the contrary, their dull and listless performances end up making something impossible, possible - they kill an already dead movie.
The plot isn't even worth discussing. For all of you who have seen The Godfather trilogy, this will be a very, very dismal affair.
Just for the sake of discussing this piece of almost worthless art, the story revolves around the death of a underage prostitute, whose baby is delivered by the midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). She also finds a diary on the dead girl, which leads her to the Trans-Siberian Restaurant owned by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahland). Little does she realise at that point of time that she had walked into the lion's den - that Semyon was an old and respected vor of the Russian Mafia. Things go out of hand when the undertaker Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) and the son of Semyon, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), get involved.
The flick then moves at a glacial pace, till a small surprise towards the end. However, I was too disoriented by then to even acknowledge the sudden change of direction.
Honestly put, you can miss this one. No one will kill you for it.
You have an old patriarch at the head of the business, one hot-headed son and an budding mafia leader in the making. The ingredients are there to be fused together. The ultimate dish, though, disappoints.
The plot is alright for a mafia movie, that much I should clarify. The execution? Not even close.
Cronenberg was obviously of the opinion that more blood and gore will add a touch of realism to the movie. In fact, the beginning of the movie has as much blood-spilling as that in Saw or Grudge. Repulsive nature of some of the scenes aside, there is not much of note in this bland flick.
The director's mediocrity filters down to the cast.
The actors are nowhere near their potential. Normally, a cast featuring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen would have taken my breath away. Quite to the contrary, their dull and listless performances end up making something impossible, possible - they kill an already dead movie.
The plot isn't even worth discussing. For all of you who have seen The Godfather trilogy, this will be a very, very dismal affair.
Just for the sake of discussing this piece of almost worthless art, the story revolves around the death of a underage prostitute, whose baby is delivered by the midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts). She also finds a diary on the dead girl, which leads her to the Trans-Siberian Restaurant owned by Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahland). Little does she realise at that point of time that she had walked into the lion's den - that Semyon was an old and respected vor of the Russian Mafia. Things go out of hand when the undertaker Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) and the son of Semyon, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), get involved.
The flick then moves at a glacial pace, till a small surprise towards the end. However, I was too disoriented by then to even acknowledge the sudden change of direction.
Honestly put, you can miss this one. No one will kill you for it.
_____________________________________________________________________
Official Trailer
No comments:
Post a Comment