Continuing with our recent theme of praising understatement in television/cinema, Eastern Promises
Eastern Promises stars Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai, the tough, stoic, possibly psychotic driver for a Russian organized crime family in London. A teenaged girl connected to that family ends up dying while giving birth in a hospital with midwife Anna (Naomi Watts), who is of Russian descent, attending. But what appears to be – and was marketed as – a straight-up thriller where Anna ends up chased by the mob because of what she knows about the dead girl turns instead into a series of interconnected threads around shifting loyalties within the crime family. Nikolai and Anna are well-drawn, complex characters, revealed in layers as the film goes on, as is Kirill, Nikolai’s boss and the son of the crime family’s patriarch. Even into the final scenes, we’re still learning about these characters.
Mortensen was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, which was superb and utterly convincing, although I didn’t really see how any of us benefited from seeing him naked during the film’s major (and ultra-tense) fight scene. Watts was also superb in her role, and I was impressed by the filmmakers’ decision to dress her down for the entire film – her hair and especially her makeup were appropriate to the role, and while Watts is unspeakably pretty even without makeup, she was credible for the way she was presented.
The film’s ending, however, hinges on a misjudgment and a coincidence to lead to the climactic scene, which I can only imagine the scriptwriter envisioned first and had to work backwards to lead the characters to that place and situation. The misjudgment revolves around the unstated assumption that the hospital would not have a vial or two of the baby’s blood around, which strikes me as unlikely. The coincidence, the one sloppy bit of scriptwriting in the entire movie, revolves around Anna leaving the hospital just as Kirill arrives. A few seconds either way and the final scene never happens. The improbability of it all cracks the veneer of belief the film creates to that point, although the resolution itself is strong enough to complete the storyline and provide sufficient cover for the film’s few, minor lapses.
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The Bourne Ultimatum
The first film in the series, The Bourne Identity
Incidentally, Matt Damon reversed course and has now signed on to appear in a fourth installment of the series, which will give Julia Stiles a chance to stand around and look pretty some more, a task for which she seems rather well qualified.
Julia Stiles brings less to the Bourne table than Kate Capshaw brought to the second Indy movie. They never should have killed off the Run Lola Run chick in the second one.
As for Viggo’s nudity, I get the strong sense that he’s one of those actors who insisted on the scene that way because it would be too easy to do it clothed, he wants to show the vulnerability of the character, etc. etc. ad nauseum. It’s not ego as such, but there is some level of hyper-seriousness of craft at work that probably makes him hard to say no to on the set.
They kind of had to kill her off as that is what happened in the books. To not kill her would have totally changed the entire story from the book.
I liked Eastern Promises also but I could have lived without the low angle camera following his nutsack as he crawled over sauna benches.
i am trying to use viggo’s thing when he puts two fingers up to his neck- just finding in the insurance industry it does no help.
Keith, you should really review the 5 best-pic nominees, even if as a collective they weren’t the best five movies of the year (just as last year, when the best movie was The Lives of Others). Of the ones nominated, Michael Clayton & There Will Be Blood made this one of the best cinematic years I can remember.
Malcolm,
I won’t disagree with you that the five movies nominated this year (or any year) aren’t definitively the best movies of the year but it’s pretty hard to argue with giving the Best Picture Oscar to No Country For Old Men.
Matt,
Not arguing against No Country for Old Men; I just prefer the other two. Either way I think overall they did a pretty good job choosing the winners this year. The only real surprise was Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton, but having seen her give depth to a character for which very little was written, I agree with that choice. Granted, I haven’t seen all of the nominated films.
Speaking of which: Keith, did you read No Country? If so, how about a comparison between the book and movie?
I write about movies as I see them, but since only one of the five nominees is out on DVD, I haven’t seen any of them yet. I haven’t read No Country either, but will do so before seeing the movie.
For me, I always compare Eastern Promises to A History of Violence (same star, same director), and Eastern Promises doesn’t hold a candle to AHoV to me. It wasn’t bad, but Viggo was much better in the other movie, and while it was a bit outlandish (and strays very far from the source) it was a much more compelling story.
I predict that once Keith sees There Will Be Blood, he will start using “I drink your milkshake” as a phrase… as he should.
Keith,
If I am interested in reading the book, I will try to before seeing the movie. However, they are two different experiences and a great book is still a great book if you have seen the movie. It seems you are going to avoid seeing No Country until you read it. Why?
Malcolm,
Keith will not use the I drink line because unfortunately it is becoming played out fast, often by people who haven’t even seen the movie. Besides, it would also be entirely unoriginal. That in no way diminishes the brilliance of the movie.
JK,
In retrospect, you are right about the line; I just remember being floored by that scene and the heated vocalization of that line, in general. But yes, at this point, it is played.
Robert,
I really liked A History of Violence until the very end, which really spoiled the whole thing for me. I admit that I haven’t seen the movie since it was in theaters, but I remember the set as being cheesy and cartoonish, and I really did not like William Hurt’s part at all.
Brad,
Maybe its been a long long time since I’ve read the Ludlum Bourne books, but isn’t it COMPLETELY different than the movie? I seem to recall something about Bourne actually just being a cover to draw out the Jackal or some other notorious assassin. I also vaguely recall something about SE Asia. Also, I’m pretty sure Marie was kidnapped but escaped and Conklin was his buddy.
The Assassination of Jesse James is on DVD and one of the year’s best films without a doubt.
Bourne was a miserable waste of time, outside of the scene when he goes through the window.
Eastern Promises was a solid effort by Director and Actor though Naomi Watts was a bit wasted as her character was underwritten. I liked it better than AHoV, mainly due to the latter’s last 20-30 minutes which weren’t well thought out.
Craig,
I heard an interview with Cronenberg and Mortenson discussing the scene where he’s attacked and Mortenson said, “Well of course I have to do it naked.” He said he was pretty banged up for a few days.
I agree with the opinion of Craig Calcaterra on Mortensen’s nutidy: that just made the fight scene have very raw feel to it.
I watched all movies mentioned in the replies here, and think ‘There will be blood’ is the best of all to me. I did not know the Johnny Greenwood is involved in OST, but it was also great, too.
I heard Mortenson in an interview with Cronenberg and when the idea of the fight was brought to him he said, “Well I have to do it nude.” He also said he was banged up pretty bad for a few days.
EP was better than AHoV because the last 20-30 minutes of AHoV was silly. Naomi Watts wasn’t used well enough in EP, it was his film with her on the sidelines.
Bourne was a joke of a movie.
I agree with you about Eastern Promises, but let’s give Bourne a little credit? “just a Hollywood style thriller”? C’mon, this is the best action series in at least ten years. Bourne is perhaps the most economical action hero in all of film. Have you seen the latest Bond film? Notice anything? Yeah, they Bourne-d it out. I love how Bourne doesn’t do anything he doesn’t have to. Everything makes sense in the end, even if it didn’t at the time. Oh, and for my money, the Moscow car chase in the 2nd film, is amongst the top five chases of all time. There’s nothing wrong with being an exceptionally well done and, yes, smart action film.
I saw all the nominees this year, plus a few of the ones on the fringe. I would rank them thusly:
1) There Will be Blood -Modern Citizen Kane
1a) No Country for Old Men -Enthralling internally consistent movie, without any loose threads
2) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford -incredible acting, writing, and character development, shot in a beautiful way
–Drop off–
3) Atonement -nice movie, but the plot doesn’t do much for me
–big ol’ drop off–
4) Michael Clayton -Erin Brockavitch for men, told in a slightly more compelling way
5) Juno -self-involved pretentious film by an über-representative of what I like to call the “existentialist generation” Totally immature if slightly entertaining.
And I thought AHoV was dreadful. I get that they were trying to replicate the look of a graphic novel (my biggest problem: the source material), and that the overacting and cheesiness was intended, but that does not make up for the fact that it was overacted and cheesy.
Keith,
Off-topic, but I’m hoping you’ll write a post concerning C.J. Wilson’s negative comments regarding his teammates through the media and Internet. It seems that this is part of the epidemic of people thinking that when you say things online it’s different than saying it to their faces. Since this has been a theme of some of your posts here, I was curious your feelings on this moving from people who “argue” about baseball to between baseball players.
Evan, the big difference is that the players C.J denigrated had a chance to confront him. The “Angry Royals Fans” posters that bashed Keith are unlikely or unwilling to meet him. While I disagree with the tone of C.J Wilson’s remarks, his approach was slightly more decent.
Keith-
If you haven’t you should definitely read the Bourne Books. The Bourne Identity is incredible. It’s so much better than the movie. They didn’t really follow more than just the general premise in the movie.
I just added The Assassination of Jesse James… to my Netflix queue. We’ve got The Namesake, Howl’s Moving Castle, and the last episode of season 4 of Foyle’s War out now.
The fight scene in Eastern Promises was one of the more intense ones ever filmed. As far as the nudity, I think it helped the “OH” and “AH” factor.