Eastern Promises was David Cronenberg’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed breakout directorial hit, 2005’s A History of Violence. A History of Violence was a bit overrated, and William Hurt receiving a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his ten minutes of screen time was a bit of a joke. However, Viggo Mortenson was terrific in his role in that movie, and his work in Eastern Promises is stellar.

Mortenson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Road) stars as Nikolai Luzhin, a member of the Vory V Zakone family of the Russian mafia. More specifically, Luzhin works as the loyal family driver to Seymon (Armin Mueller-Stahl – Angels and Demons, The International) and his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel – Black Swan, Oceans 13), intent on working his way higher and higher into the family business. He is cool, calm, and collected. While quietly vying for the attention of Seymon, he perfectly balances the flamboyant and careless Kirill.

Despite Luzhin’s outward lack of emotion and, more specifically, empathy, we slowly are made aware that he has a more genuine and compassionate side. We see this through his interactions with Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts – King Kong, The Ring), who plays a midwife at a downtown London hospital. Khitrova’s character is brought into the fold when she discovers a diary of a patient who died while giving birth. Khitrova is initially intent on having the journal translated to find out more about the baby’s family and perhaps find a relative rather than put the baby up for adoption. However, she discovers something more and cannot keep herself out of the situation despite warnings from both her family and the Vory V Zakone family.

There is a twist to the story that I will discuss below. I will caution you with a spoiler alert at that time. Before getting to that, though, I wanted to note that I thought Naomi Watts was miscast as Khitrova. Watts is an extremely established actress, resulting in more of the story revolving around her character. Her character is an essential part of the film, but having so many scenes centered around her took away from other parts of the story that could have been better built.

***Spoiler Alert***
We learn three-quarters of the way through the movie that Luzhin is an informant. The reveal occurs relatively quickly, with Luzhin convincing his boss that he will not be pulled from the case despite almost being beaten to death because he is so deep in the organization. There is no more mention of this brief scene during the rest of the movie. The last scene in the film suggests that Luzhin was a double agent and that he is now king of the empire. This scene didn’t need revealing. It was almost as if the director couldn’t see the audience buying into Luzhin’s character as being a sympathetic character without throwing in this wrinkle. It is stated quite a few times throughout the movie how Luzhin had committed some considerably awful crimes in his time, and, because of this, maybe he couldn’t have a compassionate side on his own.

Perhaps, if he had witnessed or learned about something this severe and wrong, his character could have approached such a situation with compassion and humanity. This would have made him a far more complex character, worthy of more discussion.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 9/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
83.5%