Eastern Promises brings back director David Cronenberg with actor Viggo Mortensen together. The last time the two worked on a film, we got A History of Violence. Eastern Promises might not be as good as A History of Violence, but boy, is it a...
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Eastern Promises brings back director David Cronenberg with actor Viggo Mortensen together. The last time the two worked on a film, we got A History of Violence. Eastern Promises might not be as good as A History of Violence, but boy, is it a joy to watch.

Eastern Promises stars Mortensen as a Russian mobster, Nikolai, working in London. He is just the driver to the higher ups, but he knows his stuff. Anna (played by Naomi Watts) is a doctor working at a local London hospital. Their worlds were never supposed to cross paths. Enter young Tatiana. She dies giving birth and leaves a diary. Unfortunately, the diary is in Russian and Anna decides to have it translated by a mob boss, of whom Nikolai works for. Their paths invariably cross as Nikolai wants to advance in the mob and Anna wants to find a family for the baby. Both are playing dangerous games, either knowingly or unknowingly.

As said before, Viggo Mortensen stars and shines as the mobster Nikolai. The same can be said for the rest of the cast. But what really keeps this movie going is the excellent direction by Cronenberg. He does a superb job of pacing the movie and by keeping the audience in a mystery as to what's really happening.

Overall, Eastern Promises is a great movie to watch. There may not be gun battles or a ton of action scenes for the action junkies, but those looking for a good movie will find Eastern Promises is indeed a great watch.