I’m a bit
notorious ‘round these parts for being among the very few detractors of David
Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, and while I’ll skip the details so as
not to re-ignite that particular powder keg, I will say that I’m at least glad
that it’s helped re-invigorate David Cronenberg and I have no problem with him
reuniting with star Viggo Mortensen for another go-round. Their new London-set film
Eastern
Promises has a similarly shopworn premise that appears to have much
more going on under the surface, which is what wowed so many about History.
Now, the trailer’s shown up on Yahoo, and it looks like the film delivers on
its promise.
We start
with the deaths of a Russian Mafioso and a mysterious young teen. While the
police look into the gangster’s life, a midwife (Naomi Watts) finds herself
drawn to the young woman’s existence and follows up on a lead in her diary.
This brings her to an innocuous-looking eatery run by Armin Mueller-Stahl that
hosts two heavies (Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel). Then, we get a nice dose
of Viggo’s Russian accent and a whole lot of intrigue that’s likely to end with
lots of bodies getting decimated. And though he can sometimes come off as
lightweight or passive, Viggo’s the essence of badass here with his suits,
slicked back hair, and tattoos. It was barely on my radar before, but I’m
looking forward to the film’s September bow something fierce now.
Thankfully,
this baby is up at Yahoo, so you get plenty of QuickTime HD options to choke
your broadband with. Click here to
enjoy the mob life.