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Go Home The Week In Film

THE PLANK SEPTEMBER 14, 2007

The Week In Film

BY TNR STAFF AND TNR STAFF

In case anyone missed them, my take on Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah is here, and my thoughts on Julie Taymor's Across the Universe are here. But if you're trying to decide what movie to go to this weekend my strong recommendation would be David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. My full review should be up tomorrow, but here's a short tease:

"I am driver," explains Viggo Mortensen early in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises. "I go left. I go right. I go straight ahead. That's it." In fact, moviegoers should be pleased to know that the moral maneuvers undertaken by Mortensen's character, a low-level hood in London's Russian underworld, are considerably more interesting than advertised: swerves, veers, dips, even a u-turn or two. In structural terms, the protagonist of the film is a midwife played by Naomi Watts. But on a gut level this is Mortensen's movie, and he makes the most of it....

I would describe Mortensen as a revelation in the role, had he not already demonstrated what he was capable of in his previous collaboration with Cronenberg, A History of Violence. As he did then, Mortensen shows himself more comfortable with darkness and ambivalence than he ever was with the gaudy heroism required of a king in Middle Earth.

Update: The full review is here.

--Christopher Orr

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I just got A History Of Violence from Netflix and I'm really looking forward to watching it, despite the rather mixed reviews. And now a new Cronenberg movie! Hot damn! In other filmmakers-named-David news, my father (inexplicably) bought me a collection of early, short films by David Lynch. Honestly, I love Blue Velvet and all, but do I really want a watch a short movie about disembodied cartoon heads vomiting?

- ratnerstar

September 14, 2007 at 12:14pm

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he was fine in LOTR. In fact, I can't imagine who would have been better. Ratty, History of violence was good.

- blackton

September 14, 2007 at 12:46pm

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But are we going to get to hear anything about The Brave One? That seems to be the most interesting flick of the weekend. HoV kind of frayed after the second act. Sort of like all the Cronenberg movies.

- kerouac9

September 14, 2007 at 12:57pm

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I don't think he was bad in LOTR. But while he looked the part, he never quite persuaded as the King of All Men. (When Theoden is a far more convincing war leader than Aragorn something is a bit amiss.) In any case, my point is not to dis him in that role, but to note that he's truly come into his own in the Cronenberg collaborations.

- chrisorr

September 14, 2007 at 12:57pm

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I'm with Chris on LOTR. Viggo looked bored more than anything else. His eyes were dull, irritable, had that "oh sh*t, not ANOTHER f***ing take?!" look in almost every scene

- teplukhin

September 14, 2007 at 2:08pm

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the scene nearby the forest in the Two towers when the were looking for Pippin and Merry, he kicked a helmet and let out a scream. In actual fact, he broke his foot during that kick and his scream was of primal pain, but seems one of geniune emotion. he never broke character, and they left that scene in the movie. myself, I would have hopped around screaming oh shit oh shit. you might think he underplayed it, but his character was supposed to embody reluctance at assuming his proper place so I have a different take on his performance.

- blackton

September 14, 2007 at 2:44pm

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and I recommend it highly!

- purcellneil

September 14, 2007 at 5:34pm

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Hmm. I'm going to totally prejudge The Brave One: Looks to me like an icky vigilante movie made "interesting" by Jodie Foster's presence and some pseudo-intellectual, half-hearted hand-wringing. I understand that it takes place in New York, where the year, like everywhere else, is 2007 and not 1975, when urban crime made the city (in the popular imagination anyway) a scary place. The crime that starts Foster off on her shooting spree is an attack in Central Park at dusk apparently in view of many others. I'd be curious to know the stats on crime in the park today, but my hunch is that what is portrayed in the film just doesn't happen. In any event, it certainly doesn't hook into prevalent cultural attitudes about the big bad city for anyone who is lived in one the past 15 years or so.

- jhildner

September 14, 2007 at 6:34pm

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OK, black, I'll give it another look. hildner, looks like Jodie got a botox injection. About time. Good riddance, chicken lips.

- teplukhin

September 14, 2007 at 7:51pm

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I don't know about botox, but she is looking very good these days. Too bad about her selections. She's a female star who can clearly carry a movie on her own and yet her unique charisma seems wasted on mediocre-to-lousy projects like Panic Room, Flightplan, and (if my guess is right) The Brave One. Sandra Bullock is another actress who should be getting top billing on movies far better than Premonition. Oh well....

- jhildner

September 14, 2007 at 10:21pm

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