Nationwide release date is set for this Friday.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/easternpromises/trailer/

Quote :

"The new thriller reteaming acclaimed director David Cronenberg with his A History of Violence leading man Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises is written by Steve Knight (Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Dirty Pretty Things). As in the earlier film, director and star together explore the psyche, physicality, and fortunes of a man whose true nature may never be wholly revealed. The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Mr. Mortensen) is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon (Academy Award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father. But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova (Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts), a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna's mother Helen (Sinéad Cusack) does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives - including his own - hang in the balance as a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself."

9/17/2007 1:58:09 PM

They slammed it on (whoever is filling in for) Ebeert & Roeper the other week, but I like what I see from the previews. And loved A History of Violence. I also like russian.

9/17/2007 2:03:56 PM

The film did win the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival but I'm sure the fact that that is his hometown didn't hurt at all.

9/17/2007 2:13:26 PM

i still have no idea what this movie is about.

9/17/2007 2:21:59 PM

From IMDB.com:

Quote :

"Canadian director David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises won the top People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival over the weekend, pushing it into early Oscar contention. The film, co-starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, is also due to open the London Film Festival on October 17. The film packed the 14 North American theaters in which it played over the weekend, taking in a per-theater average of $36,000, the highest of any movie in current release. The film also drew high praise from critics. In the Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert commented that with Promises Cronenberg has emerged into "the top rank of directors." Acceding to Cronenberg's request to critics not to give away the plot, Ebert concluded his review by remarking intriguingly, "The actors and the characters merge and form a reality above and apart from the story, and the result is a film that takes us beyond crime and London and the Russian mafia and into the mystifying realms of human nature." In the New York Daily News, Jack Mathews wrote, "Eastern Promises is the first must-see adult film of the young fall." Desson Thomson in the Washington Post commented that Cronenberg "has created a movie that is contemporary storytelling at its finest." A.O. Scott in the New York Times concluded his review by remarking that Promises is "a movie whose images and implications are likely to stay in your head for a long time." But Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times, while calling the film "expertly realized and gunmetal slick," nevertheless commented that it "doesn't stir much in the way of visceral horror despite its penchant for treating the human body like a chicken carcass on a block." And Bruce Westbrook in the Houston Chronicle suggested that Cronenberg merely leads the moviegoer into "a stifling descent into grim shock and disturbing awe. For Cronenberg, such cheap sensationalism is business as usual, and this far into his career, that business has slipped into artistic bankruptcy.""

9/17/2007 6:06:10 PM

i'm definitely goin to see this

fucking loved h.o.v. and pretty sure this is gonna be stellar too

9/18/2007 8:24:27 AM

Apparently Viggo fends off two attackers while nude in this movie.

Enjoy those balls flinging about, boys.

9/18/2007 9:27:39 AM

Quote :

"They slammed it on (whoever is filling in for) Ebeert & Roeper the other week"

No they didn't. At worst they called the movie conventional, but they both were mostly positive and certainly neither was scathing.

9/18/2007 9:56:41 AM

this movie was awesome! just saw it.

9/22/2007 7:28:17 PM

Great movie. i thought it was paced well and acting was on point. I have a couple of eastern European friends and the accents were dead on. some of the action is brutal though. its not gratuitously gross or violent, but there's 3 scenes that are hard to watch if your averse to violent films. Overall: A-

















***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT***














I think it would have been better if you never found out that Nikolai was simply working undercover. To me it severely weakens his character. Even still, the movie still leaves you second guessing his real motivations.
















***END SPOILER***

[Edited on September 23, 2007 at 9:49 PM. Reason : more space for spoiler alert. ]

9/23/2007 9:48:46 PM

i'm a huge fan of History of Violence... so my hopes were set a little to high.

I thought the pacing was a bit too slow and overall wasn't too impressed.
I think History of Violence was way better.

Still the performances were on point

9/24/2007 12:27:15 AM

Movie was good (pacing was probably what hurt it the most) but not on the same level as History of Violence. We also didn't need that epilogue.

9/24/2007 3:15:22 PM

I recommend a rewatch. Just saw it again on HBO and holy shit what a badass movie. Much better than I remembered it.

[Edited on November 20, 2016 at 8:09 PM. Reason : V]

11/20/2016 8:08:33 PM

I almost bought this yesterday in a record shop. I may have to go back and get it now that you said that. I think it was $3.99, haha.

11/21/2016 11:08:56 AM