Eastern Promises

The extras are all but perfunctory, but Kinos exquisite 4K transfer is easily the best that Eastern Promises has looked on home video to date.

Such are the actual subtleties of Mortensen's performance - the odd sardonic smile; the slight tightening of a look - you're aware, from the off, that what he is on the outside might not have anything to do with what he is on the inside.

Eastern Promises has a lot going for it, which makes it all the more disappointing when the story takes a fatal turn towards the end.

Despite Viggo's total gorgeousness, a nude fight-for-his-life in a steam room has all the titillation of a butcher throwing down a slab of meat.

Its subtext, which is about sex and violence and the way one often dovetails with the other, and the skill of its making, render it gripping enough.

Cronenberg is his own master, still ready to throw in the sort of scene few other directors could dare.

Viggo's second collaboration with Cronenberg doesn't have the same juice as A History of Violence and the story would have benefitted from exploring the Krill character more, but the naked bath fight is a keeper!

Represented one of Cronenberg’s stronger periods, one with more mainstream success than the director has typically enjoyed. (15th anniversary)

Viggo Mortensen gives a fascinating performance in this dark and violent journey full of secrets, fidelity and family. [Full review in Spanish]

Beyond the film's eroticized violence and secretive world among the brutal Russian gangsters, Cronenberg also tells an immigrant story about people who want a better life only to find their desire exploited.