Eastern Promises (2007) - No twists, no tension, no atmosphere - a quite ordinary movie! - 4/10 (27/05/10)

I watched this film because of the well known actors and the interesting story involving a Russian background which interests me a lot.

But except of a shocking opening scene, a nice fight scene in the sauna and as always a charming Naomi Watts (though she acts way better in most of her other movies), there is nothing special that was still on my mind after watching this film.

To be honest, the film is quite a deception. The story is boring and not touching at all, there are no surprising twists in the movie, everything is quite predictable, the actors are left way beyond their professional possibilities, there is nothing special about the way the movie was directed, nothing touching about the atmosphere (a film has not a Russian flow because some of the actors are speaking Russian or have strange and exaggerated stereotypical accents!). The film is quite ordinary and has no philosophy. There is no clear object of the movie, it wants to be a thriller (though you know who has murdered whom), a movie about Russian mafia (showing many clichés but nothing new) mixed with some emotional elements (which stay superficial and not really convincing).

All in all, I can really not recommend this movie to anyone, this one is okay to watch it one time, but it already has some lengths and a second viewing (or the purchase of this one as a DVD or Bluray) would be a complete waste of time and money.

If you would like to watch a movie about Russian cultural and the country's dark side go for "Archangel", "Transsiberian" or the more historical "Defiance". If you'd like to see more of Naomi Watts, you must have seen the brilliant "Mullholland Drive".