The scariest monsters don t have fangs or claws. Sometimes they wear nice suits and play the violin. In the riveting, disquieting Eastern Promises, Canadian director David Cronenberg ( A History of Violence ) immerses us in a world of human depravity and dread so intense that sometimes it s hard to endure.
Despite its high squirm factor, Eastern Promises has plenty going for it, not the least of which are Oscar-worthy performances from Viggo Mortensen and German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl and one of the greatest action scenes ever committed to celluloid. The screenplay by Steve Knight ( Dirty Pretty Things ) kicks off with back-to-back shockers. In the first a barber slits the throat of a customer.
In the other a barefoot teenage girl walks into a London pharmacy and begins hemorrhaging all over the floor. She dies at a nearby hospital while giving birth, leaving behind a diary written in Russian. Hoping the journal will provide clues to the dead girl s identity, midwife Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts) takes it to a swank Russian restaurant in her neighborhood. Perhaps someone there can translate it.
She s greeted by the owner, the genteel, grandfatherly Semyon (Mueller-Stahl), who offers her tea and Christmas cookies. Such a gentle, kindly old fellow. Except that behind his cultured exterior Semyon is a heavyweight with the Russian mob, the operator of an international sex slavery ring and a rapist. The diary Anna has brought a photocopy, keeping the original at home implicates Semyon and his crime family in kidnapping, prostitution and drugs.