Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Eastern Promises



Reidksi and I saw this last night...most of it anyway. We arrived too later for the first throat slashing scene, and I had to hide my eyes behind his hands for some of the seriously gory scenes. I thought the nude wrestling scene in Women in Love was quite risky until I saw the sauna scene in this film.

Not sure about the film really. Certainly it was a gripping film to watch, atmospheric, and Viggo Mortensen was very good indeed (though whether his character was is open to debate), but the ending was poor and cliche ridden, and whilst I can happily accept the odd huge coincidence in my reading or viewing, there were one or two too many of those in this even for me.

Still, a good evening was had. A drink and bite to eat in one of Northampton's better pubs first, followed after the film by a second drink here which used to be a dive used by 14 year olds and is now very nice indeed - although I was bemused to read in the link that it is in the heart of Northampton's theatre land. What bloody theatre land? Although in all fairness it is next to the fire escape of our one theatre complex so that probably counts in Advert Land.



On another subject entirely - what a good job I just yelled upstairs to enquire if my sons were in fact thinking of going to school today at all. Both sound asleep and supposed to be there at 8.55. Panic has just ensued.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry you didn't like it -- thought it was a brilliant film but maybe because I'm a Viggo fan. I think he's an incredible actor --this was as good as his role in 'History of Violence'. Then again, the director was David Cronenberg -- maybe you just don't get the subtle Canadian sensibility!! I thought Viggo's Russian prison tattoos alone were worth the price of admission!

J.J said...

Oh I did like it Marc. And the shots of Viggo's body/tattoos did not go entirely unappreciated!