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Eastern Promises

  • 2007
  • R
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
271K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,713
582
Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts in Eastern Promises (2007)
Eastern Promises - Trailer #2
Play trailer2:03
15 Videos
99+ Photos
GangsterCrimeDramaThriller

A teenager who dies during childbirth leaves clues in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.A teenager who dies during childbirth leaves clues in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.A teenager who dies during childbirth leaves clues in her journal that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.

  • Director
    • David Cronenberg
  • Writer
    • Steven Knight
  • Stars
    • Naomi Watts
    • Viggo Mortensen
    • Armin Mueller-Stahl
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    271K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,713
    582
    • Director
      • David Cronenberg
    • Writer
      • Steven Knight
    • Stars
      • Naomi Watts
      • Viggo Mortensen
      • Armin Mueller-Stahl
    • 497User reviews
    • 303Critic reviews
    • 83Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 28 wins & 74 nominations total

    Videos15

    Eastern Promises
    Trailer 2:03
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises
    Clip 0:34
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises
    Clip 0:34
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises
    Clip 0:57
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises
    Clip 1:03
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises
    Clip 1:05
    Eastern Promises
    Eastern Promises: How Did You Get Here
    Clip 1:33
    Eastern Promises: How Did You Get Here

    Photos149

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    Top cast51

    Edit
    Naomi Watts
    Naomi Watts
    • Anna
    Viggo Mortensen
    Viggo Mortensen
    • Nikolai
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    Armin Mueller-Stahl
    • Semyon
    Josef Altin
    Josef Altin
    • Ekrem
    Mina E. Mina
    • Azim
    Aleksandar Mikic
    • Soyka
    • (as Aleksander Mikic)
    Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse
    Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse
    • Tatiana
    • (as Sarah Jeanne Labrosse)
    Lalita Ahmed
    Lalita Ahmed
    • Customer
    Badi Uzzaman
    Badi Uzzaman
    • Chemist
    Doña Croll
    • Nurse
    • (as Dona Croll)
    Raza Jaffrey
    Raza Jaffrey
    • Doctor Aziz
    Sinéad Cusack
    Sinéad Cusack
    • Helen
    • (as Sinead Cusack)
    Jerzy Skolimowski
    Jerzy Skolimowski
    • Stepan
    Tatiana Maslany
    Tatiana Maslany
    • Tatiana
    • (voice)
    Vincent Cassel
    Vincent Cassel
    • Kirill
    Shannon-Fleur Roux
    • Maria
    Lillibet Langley
    • Violin Girl
    Mia Soteriou
    Mia Soteriou
    • Azim's Wife
    • Director
      • David Cronenberg
    • Writer
      • Steven Knight
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews497

    7.6271K
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    Featured reviews

    7Galina_movie_fan

    "I am driver. I go left, I go right, I go straight ahead - that's it."

    "Eastern promises" is the first film for David Cronenberg that was shot entirely outside his native Canada and it is the second film of Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen - after "The History of Violence" (2005). It should be mentioned that Viggo Mortensen had done a very impressive research for his Oscar-nominated role of Nikolai Luzhin, a modest driver and also an "undertaker" and a hit-man for the Russian mafia boss in London. Mortensen alone, without a translator, had traveled across Russia, visiting the Urals Mountains where his character came from, and also stopped in Moscow and St.-Petersburg. Mortensen diligently learned Russian to make the Russian phrases of Siberian Nikolai sound more naturally. He also studied the literature on Russian prisons and their unofficial kings, "vory v zakone" or thieves in the law, the most respected and feared criminals. The script was written by Stephen Knight whose previous film on the subject of the emigrants in modern London, "Dirty Pretty Things" (2002), proves that he is a talented writer. Sadly, the script is the weakest part of "Eastern Promises" and while watching the movie I thought that it had deserved the better writing. The story is predictable from the very beginning and it lacks subtlety. All twists and turns are clearly seen a mile away. Even with the obvious problems in the script, "Eastern promises" is an interesting film - intense, gloomy, dark, and violent. David Cronenberg's directing is laconic, non sentimental, almost clinical and always virtuoso. The gruesome fight scene in the Turkish Baths is a masterpiece, the way it was choreographed and shot. Cronenberg must have used the knowledgeable Russian consultants on the set and I was pleasantly surprised that the Russian phrases sound naturally, and pronunciation and intonations of the non-Russian actors were believable. Besides Mortinsen, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Vincent Casselas as Nikolai's horrifying boss and his creepy son, are especially memorable. Surprisingly, Naomi Watts whom I adore in every movie I've seen her, plays the least interesting character and I attribute it to the weaknesses of the script.
    10filmquestint

    Viggo Mortenssen and David Cronenberg together again

    Russian mobsters, a rainy, murky London, a midwife and Viggo Mortensen makes this David Cronemberg film a perfect companion piece to his "A History Of Violence". My two favourite films of this idiosyncratic and fascinating director. Naomi Watts and motherhood go beautifully together and it's her gutsy maternal instinct that throws her in a world populated by truly horrible people. The trick is, we go with her and within that brutal world we meet some memorable characters. Viggo Mortensen, what an actor! His fearlessness is riveting, he's also beautiful beyond words. We think we can read him but we doubt our own thoughts, he's in total control of his character and of his audience. He has the face of an icon and he underplays it, over playing it. If you see History Of Violence and Eastern Promises you'll understand what I mean. This is not a film to like but to love and I loved it.
    9Margie24

    works so well on many levels...

    It is not often that audiences today are treated to a film that has as many things going for it as Eastern Promises does. Whether it's because of interference from studios determined to make their products as marketable as possible, filmmakers who favor style over substance, or just a plain old shortage of originality, nowadays it is a treat when a film fan can leave the theater and feel affected by the artistry that he/she has just experienced.

    On the surface, Eastern Promises is a straightforward crime story about people who don't appear to be terribly complex. But somehow, the combination of the narrative, the mood, and the humanness of the characters create an alchemy that transcends this film from something that could have been common into something quite unique and memorable. Noirish settings, dedicated medical professionals, and mobsters and their loyal henchmen are all commonplace enough in movies as to risk being clichés. Yet everything in this film about a London midwife who stumbles into contact with the Russian mob as she seeks clues to the identity of a teen who died in childbirth mesh together wonderfully and fully engage the viewer.

    While it all starts with the script, credit must be given to the director, David Cronenberg for bringing it to life, and for the cast, who created living, breathing characters who the viewer cares about- whether they are likable or not, good or evil, or not quite so easy to read. They seem real.

    At the core of the film is "Nikolai," the loyal chauffeur to the kingpin's volatile son. "Nikolai" is both enigmatic and mesmerizing. We know he is a man with a past and with secrets, but we really don't know what his goals and motives are. We don't know who he is, yet somehow, just as the half-Russian midwife, "Anna", we are drawn to him and trust that there is goodness in him, even as were are not quite sure we should. It is a skillful, yet understated performance that quietly blows you away.

    Although Eastern Promises has some of the director's signature moments of eye-popping violence, they do not dominate this film and it is the quiet moments- where the characters are silently contemplating aspects of their own existence that give the film its power. We can see the introspection and pain on their faces, but the script leaves so much unsaid, and so much about the two main characters (played by Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts) we come to care about so much remain a beautiful, haunting mystery.
    8janos451

    'Promises delivered'

    "Eastern Promises" will take your breath away, churn your stomach, and then leave you with memories of unforgettable characters as well as perplexing thoughts about good and evil. David Cronenberg's movie about Russian and Chechen mobsters clashing in London is more than violent - it is brutal, savage, shocking. But do not expect just an action film, exploiting blood and gore. After you shake off its terrific immediate impact (there is no way to think while watching it), you realize that "Eastern Promises" is also a kind of morality tale, complex and important.

    Only after you hold your breath, cover your eyes, and get through the movie do you realize how "Eastern Promises" manages to contradict Friedrich Nietzsche effectively. The German philosopher's "Beyond Good and Evil" denied the possibility of a universal morality. Cronenberg's film says that ethics - without expectation of rewards, in this life or a possible other one - can prevail even in the depths of great evil. The "History of Violence" director continues his subtle, subtext theme of upholding Anne Frank's belief that "in spite of everything people are really good at heart," and he does so without a smidgen of sentimentality.

    There is no goodness in evidence as Viggo Mortensen's scary Russian mobster does every bidding of Armin Mueller-Stahl's chilling godfather figure, ruling ruthlessly over a family, which includes his son, a monster out of control, played brilliantly by Vincent Cassel (son of Jean-Pierre Cassel).

    During a pre-release press tour, Cronenberg spoke of his wish to present "provocative, juicy stories... with complexity... showing that all monsters are sentimental and have some kind of relationship to a moral compass." That is all true, but what makes "Eastern Promises" so appealing is that there is no pop psychology (or worse, pop philosophy) in or about it. The film hits you over the head with its magnificently written story (Steven Knight, of "Dirty Pretty Things"), not with a message.

    The title, on one level, refers to promises made to young women in Russia, luring them to the West, where the Mob enslaves them as prostitutes. It is one of these drugged and brutalized women whose death opens the film, and brings an English nurse (Naomi Watts) into the story.

    As a multitude of promises, threats and tragedies unfolds, you get the maximum out of "Eastern Promises" with minimum advance knowledge of its story. Initially, that is. When you return to see it again, it won't matter that you'll know how it ends, you will want to re-experience what is certain to become a classic film. ("Eastern Promises" was shown at the Toronto Festival last week, opened in San Francisco today, goes nationwide on Sept. 21.)
    JohnDeSando

    A promising affiliate

    "Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

    If Viggo Mortensen fighting naked in a London steam bath with some bad Chechens doesn't interest you, then perhaps I can offer you a second-tier Godfather with strong family "values" and exceptional acting. Director David Cronenberg in Eastern Promises comes through again with realistic violence and depressing ambiance, cast over by a humanity that even the Godfather has trouble matching.

    Mid-wife Anna (Naomi Watts) happens on a prostitute's volatile diary in the emergency room. The London Russian mob, vory v zachone, wants it back because it implicates the son of kingpin Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shine) in crimes. Driver to the mob, but good guy deep down, Nikolai (Mortensen), serves as the agent collecting the diary and carrying out the fate of those who have read it. As in most mob stories, loyalty is coin of the realm, so much so that even children of a don are not exempt from the rigid code. As in Dirty Pretty Things, young girls like body parts are bought and sold like slaves in a careless market.

    Cronenberg's worlds are usually violent, topsy-turvy, and peopled by bipolar miscreants who have accepted the dangers in hope of riches or power but at the same time fight with themselves over the moral implications. So too in Eastern Promises where a helpless newborn topples a kingmaker and makes virtuous royalty of others. Getting the throne or that royalty is tough for Nikolai, whose naked fight to the death in the bath is a tour de force of violent ballet, even discounting Mortensen's other-worldly physique. Cronenberg's fascination with the body's vulnerability is memorable here, stripped down and utterly alone, like birth and death.

    The majesty of Coppola's Godfather is partly here but more diluted; the array of complex characters in the Corleone family just is not duplicated. Yet Mueller-Stahl has Brando's quiet authority and Mortensen Pacino's quietly dangerous charm (when he says, "I live in the zone all the time," you can't help but wonder what secret turmoil lives in his heart). Neither Eastern Promises actor can possibly surpass those Godfather icons, but they and the film are promising affiliates of the royal gangland canon.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The tattoos around Nikolai's - Viggo Mortensen's character - ankles read "Where are you going?" and "What the fuck do you care?" in Russian. Mortensen thought that they were hilarious, that 'one foot doesn't respect the other.'
    • Goofs
      After Nikolai was accepted by the mafia bosses, he gets his stars tattooed. When he is in the public bath, the tattoos seem to be completely healed. However, when they are entering the baths, a slight redness is perceivable around the stars. There was one day between these scenes. While the usual for a tattoo is to be brighter at first, it can be assumed that between the particular individual's skin, the lighting and the humidity of the baths, a normal tattoo could seem to be more healed than it actually is.
    • Quotes

      Nikolai Luzhin: Sentimental value? Ah. I heard of that.

    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Shoot 'Em Up/Eastern Promises/Fierce People/The Brothers Solomon/In the Shadow of the Moon (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Just a Little
      Written by Michelle Escottery, John Hammond-Hagan and George Hammond-Hagan

      Performed by Liberty X

      Courtesy of V2 Music Ltd.

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    FAQ25

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 21, 2007 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • Canada
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Russian
      • Turkish
      • Urdu
    • Also known as
      • Promesas peligrosas
    • Filming locations
      • Thames Barrier, River Thames, Woolwich, London, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Kudos Film and Television
      • BBC Film
      • Serendipity Point Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • £25,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $17,266,000
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $547,092
      • Sep 16, 2007
    • Gross worldwide
      • $56,107,312
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 40 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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