Eastern Promises

A bloodied, pregnant young girl named Tatiana steps into a convenience store, collapses, and is rushed to the hospital, where midwife Anna (Naomi Watts), manages to save her baby's life, but not hers. Shocked at Tatiana's age -- she was only 14 -- and the circumstances surrounding her death -- she was beaten and drugged -- Anna looks through her belongings and finds a diary that she hopes will help her find the Russian girl's family. And so begins filmmaker David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES, which delves into the underbelly of immigrant London, where newcomers are forced into prostitution, disabled young men are manipulated into murder, and a fearsome Russian syndicate controls everything. It's a world that Cronenberg deftly renders with a moody, gritty palette and characters so twisted they're practically cork-screwed. While paging through Tatiana's diary, which is written in Cyrillic, Anna finds a business card for a Russian restaurant. Thinking Tatiana might have worked there, she shows up on its doorstep and accepts owner Semyon's (Armin Mueller-Stahl) help translating it, since her own Russian uncle (Jerzy Skolimowski) won't. (It's a moment too naïve for words, one of the film's weaknesses that can't be easily explained.) But there's nothing benign about Semyon's offer. When Anna learns the diary's contents, it's too late to undo the damage. She must turn to the one man whose intent is hardest to read. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) is the driver for Semyon's desperate son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), but is he Anna's foe or friend? Who is he anyway?