Friday

I've never been entirely certain about the movies of David Cronenberg. Of course I haven't seen them all. I think I've seen some of his early films Shiver and Rabid, as well as the more recent eXisteZ and A History of Violence (and a few in-between). People believe they can easily label him. A friend told me Cronenberg's films were all about the body. Perhaps. But A History of Violence and the current Eastern Promises are a slight change in direction. I don't think I'd say I liked it. It was good, but there was something not quite polished enough about it. It felt amateurish, in a way. The dialogue was stilted and artificial, there wasn't a natural flow to the plot, or the character's interactions. The Russians weren't as threatening as they should've felt. Perhaps because they were mostly played by non-Russian actors. It was intriguing, and better than most of the films you will see in the cinema at the moment, but not great. Overall, I felt that we were only given hints at the depth of the characters. The complexity of Viggo Mortensen's role was just briefly suggested. It seems like there was more here, more potential, than was actually expressed.