dixxjamm Review of Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises (2007)

Absolutely thrilling and fantastic but the artist Cronenberg is soulless

[7/10 · 25 August 2008]

I couldn't stop watching this, I've enjoyed every minute of it.The whole crew did an amazing job,and I admire Cronenberg's work.The subject matter (prostitution from Eastern Europe and the Russian mob) is painfully present.I also enjoyed the whole immigrant issue in Britain in general and the Russian one in particular.It DOES resemble The Godfather and other Mafia movies and it's refreshing that we see another mob world other than the Italian one. The actors,Mortensen,Cassel,Watts and Muller-Stahl were great.Authenticity of the whole Russian thing was astounding,a lot of work went into the research,which was used very well by the actors (casting was excellent). I could go on and on about the qualities and mention some of the flaws (for ex. I didn't like the double-agent twist of the story,I thought it would have worked better with Lhuzin being just a Simpleton gangster who turns out to have a heart of gold, the whole undercover twist kinda ruined the whole emotion of the movie).But the flaws certainly do not ruin the movie significantly and it's near excellent. BUT, HOWEVER ..... right after I watched it I had a bitter taste in my mouth,and it's the same with a lot of otherwise good movies of the last decade or so. I like my movies motivated,personal and humanly focused.That's what I like about directors like Martin Scorsese,Oliver Stone,Michael Cimino or Sergio Leone. They are personal and they have an agenda and it's the human drama in all its complexity that is the focus of their work.Also,their movies are driven by WHAT THEY WANT TO SAY, by their vision and emotion.Politically incorrect,sometimes manipulative,they always sacrifice some of the form for the essence.I like that,it's what makes me love a movie. With directors nowadays you got a near perfect form but a very unclear essence.Take the subject matter of this movie:Eastern Europe prostitution,Russian organized crime and immigration.Great topic.But where is the artist and the man Cronenberg in it's depiction?Where is he in all this?You can enjoy great scenes but ultimately you have to SEE what the artist thinks and feels.Especially since this is not Batman or some fictitious topic,it's a very current and painful subject matter.The tragedy and drama of the characters...USED, so we can see great performances from good actors and serve as a background for a visual masterpiece? Where is your humanity,Cronenberg? Of course,I don't mean to suggest that a movie like Schindler's List,with it's childishly biased agenda, is preferable. I just think that if you are going to have reality as a background,have the decency to have an artistic opinion and emotion.Art for art's sake may work for Batman,but with such profound and painful issues,you need to have a heart. Otherwise, you're just using the tragedy and drama of those people in order to make a good film.And that's cold. Very cold.