Two kinds of Brutal

Eastern Promises - 3/5

Director David Cronenberg and star Viggo "Aragon" Mortensen combined two years ago to critical and commercial success in A History of Violence. Their re-teaming in Eastern Promises marks both what is possibly Mortensen's most interesting performance to date and Cronenberg's most mainstream offering - most mainstream and least interesting.

Cronenberg gets stuck into the London gangster genre and gets stuck in it - the end product is an average thriller lifted only by the complexity surrounding Mortensen's character. Echoing his role in A History of Violence, we again have a fundamentally decent man struggling to exist in violent circumstances and Mortensen is utterly compelling in the role. The trouble is that most of what is around him is paper thin. Vincent Cassell offers us another in a long line of Euro villains, whilst even Naomi Watts heroine is rather two-dimensional.

The plot follows Watts as a nurse trying to trace the family of a girl who died in childbirth on her ward. The trail leads her into the murky world of the Russian mafia and people smuggling. The action when it comes is very brutal and gory, so those who are put off by that should avoid. The film also really fails to get to grips with its subject matter.

So, if you're not put off by the violence, worth watching for Mortensen's portrayal, but the rest is little more than average. If you want a film that really tackles the trade in people for the sex industry, check out Lukas Moodysson's powerful and disturbing Lilja 4-ever.

Interview - 3/5

A different kind of brutality here as Steve Buscemi and Sienna Miller engage in a battle of wits to try and unravel each others secrets during the course of an interview. Buscemi (who also directs and co-scripts) plays a washed up political journalist sent, against his wishes, to interview a starlet who's more famous for her private life than her work (Miller, bravely playing with type).

The film is an adaptation of a film by dutch filmaker Theo Van Gogh who, tragically, is now best remembered for being murdered by an Islamic extremist.

Buscemi handles the direction well enough and both stars are on form with the performances. Some of the ideas to do with secrets and guilt are intriguing as they dance around each other both literally and figuratively, but some of the dialogue strains at credibility. The nearest comparison I can think of would be a movie like Tape, but neither the characters nor the motivations are as coherent or as credible here and, ultimately, neither character is actually likeable enough or totally believable to give enough pay-off to the revelations in the second -half of the film and, strangely for an adaptation of another film, the whole thing feels like it would be better on stage.

It makes for interesting and thought-provoking viewing, but never compelling.