Eastern Promises
Focus Features | Release Date: September 14, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Cronenberg's deeper purpose is to pull audiences into an affecting, powerful story about right and wrong. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The actors and the characters merge and form a reality above and apart from the story, and the result is a film that takes us beyond crime and London and the Russian mafia and into the mystifying realms of human nature. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
One of Cronenberg's subtlest, most insinuating pictures, and one of the highlights of the year so far. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Cronenberg has, as Guillermo del Toro did in "Pan's Labyrinth," crafted both a drama and a fairy tale -- and he's done it in an entertainment as cracking as you could wish for. Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A superbly wrought yarn set in the milieu of first-generation Russian mobsters in London that is simultaneously tough-minded and compassionate about the human condition, Eastern Promises instantly takes its place among David Cronenberg's very best films. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
A rhapsodic movie directed with considerable formal intelligence and brooding power from an original screenplay by Steve Knight, Eastern Promises is very much a companion to "A History of Violence." Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A dark and mesmerizing immersion into a distinctive world. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterSura Wood
Cronenberg and screenwriter Steve Knight masterfully orchestrate an atmosphere of danger and dread for a descent into an underworld inhabited by the Russian mafia in London. Read full review
90
SlateDana Stevens
David Cronenberg's elegant treatise on the metaphysics of violence. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Viggo Mortensen's performance is flat-out brilliant, and this relentlessly dramatic thriller represents a mid-life growth spurt for its director, David Cronenberg. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The rigor of Mr. Cronenberg’s direction sometimes seems at odds with the humanism of Mr. Knight’s script, but more often the director’s ruthless formal command rescues the story from its maudlin impulses. Mr. Knight aims earnestly for your heartstrings, but Mr. Cronenberg insists on getting under your skin. The result is a movie whose images and implications are likely to stay in your head for a long time. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Cronenberg's follow-up to "A History of Violence" -- starring the same lead, Viggo Mortensen, in a very different part -- lacks the theoretical dimension of its predecessor, but it's no less masterful in its fluid storytelling and shocking choreography of violence. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's Cronenberg's film, but it's the actors who elevate Eastern Promises from mere thriller to some other, more disturbing plane. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
In Eastern Promises, shot to envelop by the great Peter Suschitzky, Cronenberg brings us face to face with the horror of self. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
An unusually strong crime thriller, Eastern Promises comes from director David Cronenberg, a meticulous old-school craftsman of a type that is becoming increasingly rare. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Even with his clothes on, this is Mortensen's best and richest performance, worthy of serious awards consideration. He lends a moral complexity to Eastern Promises that makes it much more than just a very accomplished action thriller. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
An icily seductive parable about family, power, unconventional justice and the perils of answered prayers. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
This is the first time, though, his (Mortensen)performance seemed so much bigger than the film surrounding it. That he manages the feat with so few wasted gestures puts him in line with the greats. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The restraint of both director and actor makes this steely gangster drama reverberate long after it ends. This kind of mystery is rare in a film culture that demands answers before the credits roll. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Expertly realized and gunmetal slick, Eastern Promises whirs along with perfect efficiency, but doesn't stir much in the way of visceral horror despite its penchant for treating the human body like a chicken carcass on a block. (Squeamishness, yes.) Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
A genuinely engrossing film. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
It's an academic meditation in underworld-thriller drag -- a movie that looks about as close to a straight-ahead, down-and-dirty genre entertainment as anything the director has made since his exploding-head horror days. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
An engaging thriller done in the Cronenberg style is still worth anyone's time. And this one boasts memorable turns from Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Vincent Cassel. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Eastern Promises has a compelling story and strong performances to back up what may seem excessive or sensationalistic. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
What it doesn't have is the resonance of Cronenberg's "A History of Violence," a film that exploited the same genre even while transcending its limitations. Eastern Promises delivers, but not on that scale. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The first must-see adult film of the young fall. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A thoroughly entertaining film by a director at the height of his ability. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The violence here is never in the service of spectacle, always of the story. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Here is an excellent crime thriller made with grown-ups in mind: Yep, it must definitely be fall. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
It’s engrossing, and Mueller-Stahl’s mix of Old World chivalry and murderousness is scarier than Jason and Freddy combined. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Cronenberg made a movie called “The Dead Zone,” and I sometimes wonder whether, for all his formal brilliance, he has ever torn himself away from that locked-in, airless state of mind. You walk out of Eastern Promises feeling spooked and sullied, as if waking from a noisome dream. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Cronenberg has a distinctive style – deadpan absurdism laced with fright and all executed with slow deliberation. But too much of Eastern Promises is cultish and silly. Read full review
60
EmpireDorian Lynskey
Mortensen shines but a contrived, issue-driven plot destabilises what could have been a great Russian gangster movie. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Eastern Promises is a jumbled string of mob-related clichés that mesh into something that’s derivative and at times uninteresting. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Eastern Promises is intensely anti-dramatic. Read full review
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