Eastern Promises (2007) - This is one of those movies I'm "supposed" to like. It's directed by David Cronenberg, the critics generally love it, the movie won a couple minor awards, received several larger award nominations including a Best Actor Oscar nod for Viggo Mortensen. It didn't make a huge amount of money but enough that there was talk for a while about a sequel.
Here's the problem - I don't much care for the movie. It's not terrible but it's a long way from great.
Start off that I'm not on the Cronenberg band wagon. This is the third of his films I've seen. "The Dead Zone" (1983) which I don't especially like (Stephen King's book is infinitely better) and "A History of Violence" (2005) which is a virtual book end for "Eastern Promises". Mortensen played the violent man with a past in that one too. As I remember my feelings on the two movies are much the same. Cronenberg's style seems to lean heavily on violence and body distortions. As I recently posted for me the story is the central element that I want to see in a movie. Cronenberg strikes me as being much more about style over substance.
In this movie there's very little story. An English midwife (Naomi Watts) is drawn into contact with a Russian criminal gang when a 14 year old sex slave/prostitute dies while giving birth. The midwife wants to find some family for the baby based on a diary that was found in the dead girl's effects. She takes it to a local Russian restaurant with which the girl seemed to have a connection. There she meets (without realizing it at first) the head of the gang Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (Vincent Casel) and their driver and rising star in the gang Nikolai (Mortensen). Turns out they know more than they let on about the girl. Turns out there's several things going on that you find out as the movie wanders to the end. The beginning of the movie is very slow and Cronenberg fills in the places where there is no story to advance mostly with graphic violence.
The two best things about the movie are Mortensen and Mueller-Stahl. Viggo specializes in immersing himself in his character's back stories which makes him a joy to watch. Mueller-Stahl has made a career of creating subtle, finely detailed characters as well. The problem is that there are no particularly likable characters here. The Russian mobsters are cruel and violent. The midwife is a little on the self righteous side (and not overly bright. Lecturing violent criminals about morality?) Most of the rest are one dimensional. Kirill is yet another weak son of a mobster boss. The rest is a ballet of venality and violence. There's no story to draw you in and no characters to care about.
In the end there's just not much to recommend about this one.
Rating - ** Not Impressed
Cashback (2006) Not quite sure what to make of this one. It's charming and lame, thoughtful and just a bit shallow. It's both a bit erotic and a bit sleazy. And finally it's a bit clever and tries to be a bit too clever.
Ben (Sean Bigerstaff) is an art student who develops chronic insomnia when he breaks up with his girlfriend. Basically he just stops sleeping. This gives him 8 extra hours a day to fill and he ends up working the overnight shift at a supermarket. There he meets a variety of idiot co-workers and a pretty girl (Emilia Fox) who might just be the answer to his problem. He also discovers he can stop time. Ben explores his fascination with the female form by undressing the female customers and drawing them, then re-dressing them before he restarts time.
The movie is based on a 2004 award winning (and Oscar nominated) short by director Sean Ellis. Virtually all of the original was included in the feature. They could do that since all the original cast was available for the expanded version. The critics are split down the middle on this. The nudity seems to be the difficulty. You either accept it as a necessary part of the story telling or you don't. For me it works but I certainly understand that others may find it difficult. At the same time most of it is unnecessary. Yes the attitude toward women is a bit juvenile but then so is Ben. This is a lot more intelligent juvenile male fantasy movie than most. Watching it makes me wish they'd spent more than a week writing the feature length script. It could have been really excellent.
Rating -*** Worth A Look
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