Eastern Promises is a dreary film about a depressing set of circumstances that befall a young female doctor when she delivers a baby from a 14 year old girl who dies on the operating table. The diary of the mother leads this doctor to a Russian crime family. The story takes place in London.
It is a Cronenberg film with eerie implications underlying many scenes. It is rather uniquely lit with many night scenes given a small touch of warmth in cold, damp surroundings. The actors do very good deadpan and all the joy in the film is strangely staged, as if every character, save the doctor, lives in well-adjusted fear of the truth. It comprises a cold calculation of modern society where few can afford to be innocent of life and death.
About halfway through, I thought, what a depressing movie. From the very beginning, I thought it was filmed in Prague. It's claustrophobic enough to make one think so for a time - very focused on the characters and not the times. Even as the plot worked its way into somewhat predictable twists, I couldn't think any goodness could come of it, nor much entertainment for me. And yet Eastern Promises inexorably delivered a bit of hope and concluded on that up note while the deception of the entire modern world continues.
It's a good movie to watch if you are drunk and wish to watch other drunks, or if you believe in pluck. There's a decent enough surprise in the middle as well as some very ugly knife fighting. Dark, sad, tragic with a baby's chance.
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