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Eastern Promises
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Universal Pictures Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (17th October 2008). |
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The Film
 David Cronenberg appears to be in top form of late, with his previous film “A History of Violence” (2005) garnering a decent box office take for a film of its kind and heaps of praise from critics and various awards. His latest entry into the cinematic zeitgeist has him re-teaming with his “A History of Violence” star Viggo Mortensen. “Eastern Promises” takes us into the otherwise unknown workings of the Russian Mob, or ‘Vory V Zokone’ (Thieves in law). The film’s title can perhaps be a bit misleading if you don’t know anything about it, I recall a friend telling me a humorous story of taking his girlfriend to this film telling her it was a romantic love story about a British nurse who falls in love with a Russian from the wrong side of the tracks. Imagine her surprise when a naked Viggo fights off and brutally kills those two men after him in the bathhouse! I had a good laugh at her expense which probably wasn’t nice but it was too funny not to. One thing is for certain “Eastern Promises” is not a romantic film; it is a dark and occasionally brutal look at the Russian mob, as they try to cover up their secrets. A young girl, Tatiana (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) dies after giving birth to her baby girl. The nurse, Anna (Naomi Watts) discovers her diary and tries to track down Tatiana’s next of kin and to get the diary translated from Russian. In doing so she exposes herself to the Vory V Zokone, primarily the mob boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and driver Nikolia (Viggo Mortensen) who does all the dirty work. The diary reveals some secrets that the mob prefers to have died with Tatiana as Anna finds herself opening doors that are hard to close. The characterizations were impressive and a thing of beauty to behold especially Viggo who puts his entire being into each role and continues to deliver something new and interesting each time. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. His level of preparation is unmatched, to get a better grasp of his character he traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Ural Mountain region of Siberia. He also studied the gangs, prison culture, tattoos and dialect to perfect his take on Nikolai. The evidence is onscreen, he's both terrifying and impressive and certainly deserved that Oscar nomination. The other cast round out an impressive list of performers, Naomi Watts continues to involve herself with great directors and fashioning an interesting CV of roles, while Vincent Cassel seems perfectly cast as the troubled son of a mob boss. The film is appropriately drab in both tone and location, the London we see here is autumn (I guess), continually cloudy and rainy which adds to the atmosphere of the film. Matched with the photography the film gives off a spellbinding effect drawing viewers into this dark world. A word should be spoken about the violence, it is brutal and realistic; violence is nothing new for Cronenberg so fans of his previous work should know what to expect. But keep in mind that there's nothing exploitative about the violence here, it serves the story and at times is disturbing. "Eastern Promises" is not a terribly long film, but it was one of the few instances were I wanted the film to go on for another hour or so…I’ve seen films based on the Italian mob (of which there are many), the Cubans (and other Latino gangsters), the Triads and the Yakuza’s but I have not seen anything dealing with the Russian mob, “Eastern Promises” takes the mob movie and spins it in a different direction, showing us something new and previously unexplored in mainstream cinema and as other films in its genre manages to captivate. “Eastern Promises” is an exceptional film that will probably leave you asking for a sequel when it’s finished. I certainly would be open to it, to see exactly how far Nikolai ends up going.
Video
Presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1, this high-definition widescreen transfer is presented in 1080p 24/fps and has been created using VC-1 compression. This Blu-ray edition is identical to the HD-DVD release, since it's the same transfer this portion of the review is taken from that HD-DVD review: Like other recent Universal releases their HD discs have included top notch transfer and this one is no exception. The image is nice and sharp, fine detail right down to the stones in the streets are visible and colors appear accurate. Skin tones are natural and the overall print is clean. I found that black levels were deep and bold, some noise can be seen as well as light grain sometimes but this is never a distraction.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 as well as DTS 5.1 tracks in both French and Spanish. The previous HD-DVD release included a TrueHD track, that track was not transfered to this release, instead Universal are supporting DTS-HD audio for their Blu-ray discs and having the HD-DVD from my previous review I had the opportunity to compare the audio and they're pretty similar, the dialogue is clear and distortion free, ambient sound is excellent and subtle, there are some aggressive moments that stand out and the film's score makes quite an impression. If anything this DTS-HD track has a slight edge in terms of depth but only just. It's an impressive audio mix that will please just about everyone that can decode the HD audio. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Universal has included only a few extras on this disc they are in the form of four featurettes. All the extras are presented in 1080p high-definition. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we've got "Secrets and Stories" a featurette that runs for 10 minutes 31 seconds, this is a basic EPK style clip featuring the regular interviews with key cast and crew about the film, the plot, their characters, etc. including the Russian mob. Some good stuff can be found here but it's all too brief, I wish Universal had released a much longer more in-depth making-of. The other featurette is running for 6 minutes 41 seconds and takes a closer look at the tattoos that were applied to Viggo, their symbolism and history. It's interesting how a man's entire life can be read through the tattoos he has on his body. There are also two Blu-ray exclusive extras that include "Two Guys Walk Into a Bath House" featurette that runs for 1 minute 55 seconds and is a very short look at the filming of the now infamous bath house fight sequence. This is a neat clip but it really needs to be much more in-depth. "Watts on Wheels" is the final featurette and it's the second of the Blu-ray exclusive extras and it runs for 55 seconds and basically takes a short look at the actress' hesitation of having to ride a motorcycle. The disc also included "My Scenes" which allows viewers to bookmark your favorite scenes.
Overall
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