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Experienced moviegoers will anticipate as much as they go into the theater, because they'll know that this film was directed by David Cronenberg. Cronenberg has a reputation for making audiences squirm, putting them through graphic portrayals of bloodshed, abusive sex, and bodily disfigurement. Early in his career, he made low budget horror movies; now he makes sophisticated horror movies that attract the best actors in the business. He is more interested in violence, its effect on the body, and its effect on the heart than any other filmmaker. But he seems torn between the study of violence and sheer revelry in staging it.

In A History of Violence, shockingly violent sequences served Cronenberg's storytelling powerfully. He guided us in considering how violence, even when it is employed to defend the American Dream, does a great deal of damage and makes a serious mess. It also does irreparable damage to the minds and hearts of those who carry it out.

But in Eastern Promises, Cronenberg takes the onscreen violence to excessive levels, and it does very little to further his exploration of the theme. This reviewer sees no particular value in being forced to watch victims sit and struggle while Russian mafia agents slit—no, saw—their throats open. We don't need to see one thug digging around in another's eye socket with a knife.

Later, Nikolai must prove his loyalty to Kirill—the "prince" of this Russian family—by having violent sex with a traumatized prostitute, and the depiction is absolutely obscene and grossly inappropriate. By this time, the audience already believes that Nikolai is participating in terrible crimes, and we do not need this kind of evidence.

Director David Cronenberg basked in glory, er, gory, in this film

And when Nikolai—completely naked—defends himself against two assassins in a brutal bathhouse brawl, Cronenberg's enthusiasm for this shocking, audacious sequence gets the better of him. This "daring" scene is sure to win all kinds of critical accolades—indeed, the film won top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival, making it a sure Oscar candidate—but audacity is not a virtue in itself. The whole scene seems contrived for the sole purpose of being "something audiences have never seen before." Sure, the fight choreography is fantastic. But the scene is likely to shift the audience's attention away from the story; they'll just be thinking about Viggo Mortensen and his bravado in performing the scene unclothed.

It's a shame, because Eastern Promises boasts some of this year's best performances. Watts wins our sympathies right away. Mueller-Stahl's turn is masterful—he makes Semyon terrifying by delivering deadly threats in the tone of a wise and gentle grandfather expressing affection for his grandchildren. And Mortensen shows that he's advancing to the front ranks of big screen actors with a complex, nuanced performance. His face is a fantastic subject—he can convey menace, moral conflict, and longing with the slightest quiver in his brow or a tremor in his grim smile. Most impressive of all, his Russian accent is utterly convincing.

What is more, Knight's screenplay weaves a web of relationships as complex as those in Shakespeare's tragedies. The story raises questions about father-son relationships, introducing two dangerous fathers and two sons who are reckless and fractured in different ways. It also raises questions about sexuality, and what happens within societies of violent men who hate and abuse women. (The mobsters seem violently offended by any suggestion of homosexuality, but Kirill has an affection for Nikolai that is something more than brotherly love.) And we might also discuss the pros and cons of multiculturalism, as London's Russian subculture is portrayed here as a world insulated from the world outside.

But alas, Cronenberg and Mortensen are too invested in shocking and discomforting their audiences to give us much opportunity for contemplation. In a recent interview about the film, Cronenberg expressed that he's more concerned with making his audience feel something—anything—than he is with making them think or discover something meaningful. He said, "I just want them to feel. Period. I don't have any rules about how they should feel."

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