Sun, 27 Jan 2008
Eastern Promises - ***
I forgot to include Eastern Promises in my last DVD Roundup becasue it wasn't in my Netflix rental history- Cory loaned me the HD-DVD combo version.
I really liked the movie and recommend it highly, but I'm a bit confused as how to describe it now. You can look it up yourself if you'd like. Why am I confused now? Well, let's get the basic stuff out of the way first.The acting, as usual, is top-notch. Even though you immediately recognize a lot of the actors, including Vincent Cassell (yet again playing a Russian mobster), you buy into it. And the "film-making"? -- great too. There are some scenes in the movie that are perfectly crafted, albeit violent- two throat slits, and a knife in the eye during a "meat and potatoes" naked sauna fight. So why the confusion about the description? Well, because I watched one of the DVD extras where the writer and director talked about their work. Before I watched that I would've said, the movie could've fit into many different genres: gangster/mob movie a la The Godfather, a kidnapping movie (in a way) . . . But in the featurette they said it's a movie about trafficking. [spoiler alert] And yes, it is, but that's not how people will remember it because they don't really dwell on the trafficking, but more on the horrible traffickers. Instead of thinking about how Tatiana was "trafficked", the audience instead thinks about "will Naomi Watts' character solve her murder (or prove it)? There is also a major plot point about who the characters really are that also distract from that theme. There is a scene with some Russian whores and the theme is brought up again, and maybe because the whores are still alive you think about the trafficking more during that scene. It only vaguely comes up again with the baby, but then that just leads to questions about how Naomi's character gets to adopt her at the end. I'm not saying that it's not about trafficking, I just think if you asked viewers what the movie was about, it'd be one of the last things they'd bring up. The trafficking is just one of the enterprises the mobsters undertake. So, enough about that- it's a good movie- great acting, excellent editing and film work, and a good (not great though) story. Go rent it. One other tidbit- Steven Knight, the writer, also wrote Dirty Pretty Things, which has similar themes.
27 Jan 13:18 | /movies | 0 comment(s)
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