Inhabiting an unexpected, but not unwelcome sphere somewhere between Mike Leigh and Martin Scorsese, Eastern Promises delivers the usual harrowing Cronenberg gore, but with a surprisingly tender twist. Worlds collide, both cinematically and culturally, when sympathetic midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) sets out to track down the family of an orphaned baby, and finds herself unwittingly crossing a dangerous mafia family. Finding the dead teenage mother's diary, written in Russian, she is warned by her old-school Soviet uncle (Jerzy Skolimowski) not to become involved, but is determined to help the child, to whom she is becoming increasingly attached, the diary being her only clue. Cue a dour, spivvy-looking Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai, who describes himself as 'just the driver' at the Trans-Siberian Restaurant, which is in reality a front for the dubious activities of unscrupulous mafia boss, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and his frivolous son Kirill (Vincent Cassel). Always lurking at the fringes of the action, whilst carefully plotting his way into the innner sanctum, Nikolai develops an interest in Anna (who follows a lead from the diary to the restaurant) and her plight - indicating that there is more to him than meets the eye - and an unsettling chemistry evolves between them.

The film is (unsurprisingly) punctuated by grisly episodes of shocking violence and rampant bloodshed, the pinnacle of which involves a naked Viggo being brutally ambushed in a sauna. But in between these gruesome flurries emerges a genuinely moving story of exploitation, genuine human kindness and eventual retribution. Part domestic drama, part gangster flick, Eastern Promises strikes a satisfying balance between genres, with affecting performances from every one of its high-calibre cast. Not quite as grippingly taut as Cronenberg's previous offering (also starring Mortensen), A History of Violence, it is still compellingly atmospheric and subtly touching.

DVD Extras

The DVD extras include a 'making of' type feature which discusses some of the real-life people-traffickers on whom the story is based, and another explaining the complicated tattoos that convey the criminal credentials of the Russian mafia.