Warning: Some spoilers…

After enjoying “A History of Violence” enough to buy it, and hearing such acclaim for “Eastern Promises,” I approached this film with high expectations and came away somewhat disappointed. Like “A History of Violence,” David Cronenberg gives us a tense thriller involving ordinary people mixed up with the mafia. In “Eastern Promises” Naomi Watts plays a midwife on a mission to find the family of a baby she delivered from a dying 14-year-old prostitute. Armed with a diary written in Russian, she accidentally hands herself over to the very people who were responsible for the young girl’s enslavement, pregnancy and death. The Russian mafia family’s chauffeur is a tattooed and heavily-accented Viggo Mortensen who is trying to advance his career, yet feels an attraction to Watts’ character.

Cronenberg’s characteristic over-the-top and in-your-face violence is present from the very beginning and I enjoyed the slow, thoughtful pace of the film. The acting was superb, and I especially liked Vincent Cassel as the drunken son of the mafia boss. However, the movie fell flat for me most of the time – I just never felt all that concerned for the characters or their predicament. The film didn’t help any by going on for most of its duration as if it is a “tough look at violence and broken dreams” and then wrapped up the last 30 minutes so that everyone pretty much gets a happy ending, despite some plausibility issues (the hospital just lets Watts’ character keep the baby? Is that standard protocol?). Not a bad watch, but not one of my favorites of the year.