In her 2007 review of David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, Dana Stevens is impressed with the manner in which the director approaches violent imagery. Steven's suggests that the violence in this film and his other, earlier works is often disturbing and difficult to watch, but somehow, never gratuitous. All of Cronenberg's films contain a cold austerity that is impossible to ignore. Of course, Eastern Promises will always be associated with Viggo Mortensen's literal balls-out performance as Nikolai, due to one gruesome fight scene in a sauna. In it, he defeats three huge men while completely naked. Though this sequence attracted a lot of attention, there is much more to this film than this admittedly well choreographed and noteworthy moment.
As always, Cronenberg is able to create mood and atmosphere with stark empty settings and shadows. The slow unraveling of the story becomes, in Steven's assessment, an "elegant treatise on the metaphysics of violence". It is interesting to note that though she finds Cronenberg's use of violence, "unsettling", here, it is still somehow less so than that of Quentin Tarantino. Perhaps because she perceives a kind of "social use" in Cronenberg's violence, as it is always a "tool of the powerful", "a rite of passage", or "an erotic game". Though I'd argue that Tarantino, too, sees violence in much the same way, his usage of it is perhaps not as refined or "elegant", and as such, is less effective for Stevens.
Stevens notes a few minor plot flaws in the film and the slightly under-developed character of Anna (Naomi Watts), but finds that, for the most part, these are almost unnoticeable due to Cronenberg's expert direction. This alongside Mortensen's "amazing, charismatic and beautiful" performance is enough for Steven's to determine Eastern Promises a success.
Article Link:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2007/09/eastern_promises.html?_r=true
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