Eastern Promises – A Believable Mafia Storyline With Good Acting

We all take turn within the squad. Since TK was not particularly delighted by my last pick on “My Blueberry Nights”, I let him pick this time. When he texted me with the movie title, I turned to Cynthia and asked the Walking Life! Encyclopedia what “Eastern Promises” was about. Her immediate reply – knowing how bad I am with Hollywood actor names – was “the King Kong girl”. Oh yes! I love the King Kong girl (her name is Naomi Watts by the way). So I was sold. Okay, I wasn’t sold that easily. I did a background check on “Eastern Promises” and found that it has good reviews written all over it. “Are you sure you want to watch that,” I asked Cynthia. Her reply was “Aragorn” (Viggo Mortensen). “Ah … the human!” exclaimed I. Okay, this was going to be an interesting outing.

My first impression of “Eastern Promises” is that the storyline is surprisingly simple, but yet believable. Maybe it is the Russian accents that the actors have created; maybe it is the tattoos, the absence of guns, and the simple explanation of the Russian mafia protocols in London; maybe it is the rather unpredictable storyline with just enough twists to keep the audience engaged. The acting of the Naomi Watts (the midwife), Armin Mueller (the Russian mafia boss in London), Vincent Cassel (his son), and Viggo Mortensen (the driver) are equally convincing. If you enjoy watching thrillers, there is no reason to give this 100 minutes of film a miss. Some of the violent scenes are very realistic though, let me warn you. But I think there is enough humor throughout to soften the rather dark nature of the film.