...just not very pleasant ones...mostly death threats.
Viggo & London-sexy+depression=gritty good time
Wow, after watching this movie, I am glad that I am neither Russian, nor living in that particular section of London. And hats off to David Cronenburg, who can make even a naked Viggo Mortensen uninteresting; that takes some talent. The talent though, lies with Viggo for making the bathhouse scene look so desperate and un-staged. You know the fight scenes I am talking about, where the good guy never gets more than a scratch while fending off a horde of baddies? Not so here; he barely crawls away. I hope the dude stretched first, and I bet that the two days it took to film that scene were pretty long and exhausting.
But back to Mr. Cronenburg; even though the movie is somewhat centered on a Russian sex trading ring (among other things), there is no titillating material here. In fact, I think the director despises flesh and sex in general. I have A History of Violence to back me up here. The level of contempt that he shows for the act of copulation and for naked humans spreads his disinterest of flesh to the audience. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that gangsters aren't wont to cuddle the nameless, faceless recipients of their carnal attention, but the sex scene between the husband and wife of Violence made very little sense to me, and was almost as cringe-worthy as the one in Monster's Ball (bleck!).
I imagine that working for such a director would be both exhausting (particularly in the emotional sense) and a bit depressing. And why does Naomi Watts' character look surprised when it rains? She lives in London, and has for all of her life, as far as we can tell.
Hats off to Viggo, who really put a lot of effort into his character. And what a character! You don't know whether or not to fear him, or to look for the heart of plated gold. Once the audience learns more about his character, the reasons behind certain of his actions are more apparent, but still more of them are made even more inscrutable (the ending, anyone? What was that about? To what purpose?). The overall effect for me is "wow", and I have to admire the time the actor put into researching his character. Some information on that can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0765443/trivia
The worry-beads are a nice touch.
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Vincent Cassel, however, barely manages to rise above the enfant-horrible that he perfected for his Birthday Girl and his Brotherhood of the Wolf characters. The last scene with him in it was the best of all of them, but if he doesn't watch out, he is going to get typecast for all American films. (His wife, the lovely Monica Bellucci, also runs this danger, likewise with her Shoot 'Em Up and Brotherhood of the Wolf characters.) They are both better actors than this!
Armin Muehller-Stahl is the truely terrifying character in this movie. His grandfatherly looks belie the cunning and treacherousness that are dropped like breadcrumbs throughout the plot. The audience knows in advance that his backbone must be made of steel if he is to be the head of a crime syndicate. That steel is the bitterly cold, almost frozen-brittle metal that one can surely find in the reaches of Siberia. For his character, the frozen despair of the Motherland is never far away. Still, we want to trust his almost-never menacing blue eyes, even while he is oh-so-subtly threatening Naomi Watt's character. She knows it too, which makes me mystified as to why she doesn't just back away, never breaking eye contact, until she can turn and flee.
In sum, I think this movie was really interesting, if entertaining only in the most depressing of ways. I will probably never watch this film again; just the once for this one and for A History of Violence is enough for me, thanks. That world exists, and I know it, but it is not mine, and even if it were, I would not want to spend more time watching it on-screen. One dose (of each) was enough, thanks.
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