http://commentarytrack.com/2007/10/04/review-eastern-promises-2007/ movie reviews, news and discussion Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:07:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://commentarytrack.com/2007/10/04/review-eastern-promises-2007/#comment-318 Miriam Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:06:10 +0000 http://commentarytrack.com/2007/10/04/review-eastern-promises-2007/#comment-318 This is a very powerful film that will have me thinking for a while. I think the idea of identity is important but I've started to come back to a more old fashioned concept for this pair of Cronenberg-Mortensen films, the mystery of the human heart. Identity isn't so much transient as it is fluid and incremental. And we're generally content to put easy tags on people from what we see. But what's going on beneath the surface? We surprise ourselves and puzzle over others but who ever figures it out? Nikolai is a killer; Nikolai is a compassionate rescuer of abused women. How do we contain such contradictions? How can the heart hold its humanity in a world of cruelty? These are big questions the film poses for me. I think the title is suggestive as well, musing on why "eastern" promises and all the associations with the word - mysterious, inscrutable, cruel, life is cheap, exotic beauty, source of the dawn and new beginnings, spiritual wisdom, spiritual fakery. Historically, Russia has always been in cultural tension between its eastern and western elements and aspirations. This is a very powerful film that will have me thinking for a while. I think the idea of identity is important but I’ve started to come back to a more old fashioned concept for this pair of Cronenberg-Mortensen films, the mystery of the human heart. Identity isn’t so much transient as it is fluid and incremental. And we’re generally content to put easy tags on people from what we see. But what’s going on beneath the surface? We surprise ourselves and puzzle over others but who ever figures it out? Nikolai is a killer; Nikolai is a compassionate rescuer of abused women. How do we contain such contradictions? How can the heart hold its humanity in a world of cruelty? These are big questions the film poses for me. I think the title is suggestive as well, musing on why “eastern” promises and all the associations with the word – mysterious, inscrutable, cruel, life is cheap, exotic beauty, source of the dawn and new beginnings, spiritual wisdom, spiritual fakery. Historically, Russia has always been in cultural tension between its eastern and western elements and aspirations.

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