The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Eastern Promises
Thriller · Crime · Mystery · 2007
A Russian teenager living in London dies during childbirth but leaves clues in her diary that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
Movie details
Eastern Promises
“Every sin leaves a mark.”
2007 Thriller · Crime · Mystery 1h 40m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.6 / 10
274.2K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
89 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
83 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
7.3 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A Russian teenager living in London dies during childbirth but leaves clues in her diary that could tie her child to a rape involving a violent Russian mob family.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Eastern Promises?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Blue Velvet
Mystery · 1986
The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Luther: The Fallen Sun
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A gruesome serial killer is terrorizing London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.
Frenzy
Crime · 1972
London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence.
Villain
Crime · 1971
In 1970s London, Scotland Yard orchestrates the downfall of mob boss Vic Dakin after he crosses the line by blackmailing Members of Parliament.
The Dead Girl
Mystery · 2006
The clues to a young woman's death come together as the lives of seemingly unrelated women begin to intersect.
Dark Places
Thriller · 2015
A woman who survived the brutal killing of her family as a child is forced to confront the events of that day.
We Own the Night
Drama · 2007
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
Chopper
Crime · 2000
The true and infamous story of Australia's notorious criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read and his years of crime, interest in violence, drugs and prostitutes.
Layer Cake
Drama · 2004
When a seemingly straight-forward drug deal goes awry, XXXX has to break his die-hard rules and turn up the heat, not only to outwit the old regime and come out on top, but to save his own skin...
Cape Fear
Drama · 1991
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
David Cronenberg
Written by
Steven Knight
Viggo Mortensen
Nikolai Luzhin
Naomi Watts
Anna Ivanovna Khitrova
Vincent Cassel
Kirill
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Semyon
Sinéad Cusack
Helen
Donald Sumpter
Yuri
Jerzy Skolimowski
Stepan
Court is in session
Put Eastern Promises on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.