The_Truth_You_Cant_Handle David Cronenberg brings this brilliant crime drama full of some quite phenomenal performances all around, namely Viggo Mortensen as a complex Russian mob enforcer again proving Viggo to be one of the most versatile working actors today. Naomi Watts was wonderful as well portraying a concerned nurse unknowingly digging into a waking nightmare until it was too late and Vince Cassel as the distraught criminal trying to hide his humanity. The tone is overbearingly ominous, the violence is visceral and the tale told is truly tragic, but it draws you in further with every moment. There are some strong similarities to the likes of other dower mafia movies, such as Road to Perdition, but this film delves into one of the most interesting and terrifying criminal organizations still active today with the Russian mob, also known as the Bratva, or Brotherhood. Cronenberg brings a dangerous criminal syndicate's daily dirty deeds to life in such a way that you can feel the muck flying from the screen. This is by no means a movie for the faint of heart, or stomach strength, but it is a cinematic classic nonetheless. I only hold back a perfect score due to the desire I felt for a more defined conclusion, but the build up to it was much more than good enough for a near perfect 9 out of 10 in my eyes.

Muhammed Ozturk In general great plot and acting. I was expecting some bad pronunciation but Morrison exceeded all expectations. He shows what kind of great acting skills he has in this movie and the feeling for life in the Russian underground world. I think that the social and cultural element of the Russians is portrayed really good and the very clear contradiction between the two worlds of Anna and Nicolai. However, the movie is going into detail on some elements in the beginning while it lacks the real emotions of the main characters. Why did Nicolai join the cops? Why is Kirill so aggressive about his dad (something happened in the past) What did he find in Nicolai that attractive.. is there an emotional connection? (there is a hint about him being gay). I liked the movie for the 90 minutes that it fed me, but I've loved to get a lot more details and a better ending. It felt like they just cut it off in the end.

Leofwine_draca Ever since the '70s, David Cronenberg has been an edgy, unconventional director whose unflinching forays into the worlds of horror, body deformity and sexuality have garnered him a loyal fan base and rave reviews. In recent years, he's moved away from more outlandish fare to focus on gritty, realistic thrillers. After the success of 2005's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, he returns with this London-set thriller which explores the world of the Russian mafia, specifically through the tattoos worn by members which really do reveal their lifetime achievements.In essence this is Viggo Mortensen's film – after he did so well in HISTORY I didn't think he'd be able to top that performance, but he does and in spades. He makes his cold, calculating driver into a human being with hidden depths and it's one of those performances that you simply can't avert your eyes from. Cronenberg strives for a look at the 'truth' in this thriller; at first I thought it was going to be a revenge-style picture but in the end it's entirely unpredictable, with different strands for different lives mingling together.The subject matter is understandably dark, but to help us through there are some great performers here – Naomi Watts, so much better than in KING KONG, as the investigative midwife; Armin Mueller-Stahl as the grandiose mob boss, and finally Vincent Cassel as yet another creepy perverted type. Cronenberg moves away from the visceral even further, although the brief bursts of violence are here as disturbing as ever – there are slit throats to rival SWEENEY TODD and a naked bathhouse battle with plenty of eye-opening moments. EASTERN PROMISES is undeniably the director's most mature movie to date, and it's a brilliant one too.

sharky_55 Naturally, most representations of criminal worlds have two layers - the top is all glitz and glamour, the crown jewels, the front in the money laundering that boasts of the wealth that comes with these sorts of illegal activities like drugs and human trafficking. And then there is the bottom layer, grimy and devoid of morals, which in this film follows Nikolai, the driver of the Russian mob in London, but whom is trusted more than the son of the top boss himself, and is asked to do a lot more than just drive. They frequent in a restaurant that is always buzzing with atmosphere and hosts elderly birthday parties while bodies are being cut up out back, and Seymon oversees both operations with ease. Cronenberg has always been one for bodily horror, and here he does not shy away. But it does not hold the same grotesque power as Videodrome or The Fly; there are two instances of throats being slit, and in each of them the camera lingers much longer than necessary, but the way the blood spurts explosively and excessively is almost comical. The quietly desperate fight sequence in the bath is the best scene in the film, because it does not attempt to overshadow, and it has a vulnerable quality that few films possess whenever the protagonist has to fight more than one person. This stems from the fact that Mortensen is buck naked, which presents every inch of his tattooed body as a target, and each the effect of glancing blow, each bloody wound and the gleam of the knives is magnified intensely. There is Seymon's son, Kirill, who in some films would be a uncompromising brute, but here he carries a hint of a sensitivity about him that suggests that he is putting it on for his father. It is hinted, through the narrative voice-over, that he is a homosexual and unable to even rape the prostitutes, which Seymon viciously reprimands. Cassel's performance is perfectly overeager and willing - see as he uses ice cream humour to lighten the mood of a heavy task, and vigorously smothers the girl gyrating on the stripper pole and demands that he see Nikolai f*ck one of them with his very own eyes - you suspect he is vastly overcompensating and projecting his own insecurities. And then when it all cracks, and he cannot throw a baby into the river like they did with another corpse earlier, we see how his life has been tragically chosen for him. It is unfortunate that the other plot of Naomi Watts' Anna Ivanova is less riveting. There is a tension between her and the ex-KGB father, and hints of a backstory that is not expanded upon (a delightful moment in the next morning, where Anna's father's pride prevents him from apologising openly, but he stumbles through an alternate option of sorts). Her motherly instincts cause her to bump into the mob and its underworld...but not in any tangible way. Cronenberg leans heavily on the diary's voice-over in order to build it up, but shows none of it in his camera. This is by far the cleanest London I have seen on film. The characters, whom have done some despicable things between them, are often bathed in a warm yellow light from overhead, like a hovering halo in the night. In daytime, the streets are pristine (Cronenberg, to his credit, does not toss in a shot of Big Ben or the palace). We see the lavish restaurant front, the top layer, but not the bottom one. It is no surprise that the bath fight has no such glow, but reeks of sterility until the first drop of blood is spilled.Mortensen is what pulls it all together. His accent is not hammy but convincing, at least enough to fool every member of the mob. A different film would establish him as the mole, and create tension by pushing him against moral ambiguity, and making us desperately hope he does not cave, yet also hoping his cover is not blown. Mortensen lives and breaths Nikolai, and when the twist is revealed, it is not so surprising because he does not dive right back to his real identity. With each carefully pronounced syllable, a cigarette ever present in the corner of his mouth, and the ease in which he carries out the duties of the mob, he makes us believe he has earned every single tattoo, and all the horrible things he has done to acquire them. They have not left his eyes.