VIGGO Mortensen, playing a mysterious driver for a Russian mob boss in London, has an eye-popping nude fight sequence in “Eastern Promises,” David Cronenberg’s superior follow-up to the overpraised “A History of Violence.”
The scene is provocative for more than nudity: “Eastern Promises” makes the violence in the earlier film look tame.
Set mostly between Christmas and New Year’s, it opens with a man’s throat being slashed in a barbershop.
It’s our first stop in a frightening and fascinating world – more than a little reminiscent of “The Godfather” – discovered by a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) after a teenage prostitute dies in delivery.
Anna, whose father was Russian, takes the dead girl’s diary. She asks her uncle (Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski), who claims to have worked for the KGB, to translate it so she can locate the baby’s relatives back in Russia.
But a business card in the diary leads Anna to an old-fashioned Russian restaurant.
The courtly old owner (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and mob boss is very eager to get his hands on the diary – which contains some very nasty secrets indeed – and eventually the baby herself.
This places Anna and her family in the deadly paths of his psychotic, vodka-guzzling son (Vincent Cassel) and his ruthless driver Nikolai (Mortensen), both of whom are hiding deadly secrets of their own.
Cronenberg subverts genre expectations with every plot twist (the screenplay is credited to Steve Knight, who wrote “Dirty Pretty Things”).
He uses the film’s amped-up (but never gratuitous) violence to implicate the audience even as the suspense builds to almost unbearable levels.
Nowhere is this more evident in that plenty bloody, full-frontal nude fight scene, which takes place in a bath house.
Assassins are lying in wait for Nikolai, who is even more resourceful than Jason Bourne in a tight spot – and boasts extensive tattoos that trace his mob history.
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.
EASTERN PROMISES
*** 1/2
A Russian “Godfather.”
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (gory violence, sex, nudity, profanity). At the Lincoln Square, Broadway and West 68th Street.