mmmm.. Viggo..
Dec. 31st, 2007 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spookyeviloneI saw Eastern Promises last night. Being an Eastern European fangirl, I'm usually cringing in my seat when Russian characters are played by non-Russians. The accents are wrong, the body language is wrong, the way they hold their freaking cigarettes is wrong.. and I notice all of that, which kills the believability of the movie for me.
Viggo Mortensen OWNED the role of Kolya. He is the only non-Russian actor I've ever seen who made me believe they could be Russian.
I like him in dark roles. Ever since he played Lucifer in The Prophecy. I didn't like him as Aragorn, because Aragorn is an emo brat, and watching Viggo be an emo brat makes me throw up a little.
The infamous nekkid fighting scene was gritty and well done, with the nekkid very understated except for one scene. Naked men should not do side kicks. Ever. Three words: boing, boing, boing. If it had been anywhere but directly front and center on the screen.. well, I'd have lost a good five minutes of hysterical laughter, and the stumble after the kick would probably have sent Viggo right out of the block of the shot. That, and I think Cronenberg was making a bow to fanservice.
Speaking of Cronenberg.. I love him, even if he will always be Dr. Decker in my head. His movies have one story, and nothing outside that one story makes it into the film. We don't get backstory on insignificant characters, we don't get crappy exposition - everything we need to know about the characters is told in the story, and by how the characters act.
My summation of the movie: GUH!!YAY!!GIMME!! It is not for the faint of heart - there are many very graphic scenes - there's one involving fingers that had me covering my eyes and screaming. Contrariwise, it made me want to lick the foley artist for coming up with a noise that conveyed the action perfectly. I still shudder when I think of that scene. I have an issue with things happening to fingers and eyes, and Cronenberg hit both those triggers in this movie.
I think this was the best movie I've seen all year.
Viggo Mortensen OWNED the role of Kolya. He is the only non-Russian actor I've ever seen who made me believe they could be Russian.
I like him in dark roles. Ever since he played Lucifer in The Prophecy. I didn't like him as Aragorn, because Aragorn is an emo brat, and watching Viggo be an emo brat makes me throw up a little.
The infamous nekkid fighting scene was gritty and well done, with the nekkid very understated except for one scene. Naked men should not do side kicks. Ever. Three words: boing, boing, boing. If it had been anywhere but directly front and center on the screen.. well, I'd have lost a good five minutes of hysterical laughter, and the stumble after the kick would probably have sent Viggo right out of the block of the shot. That, and I think Cronenberg was making a bow to fanservice.
Speaking of Cronenberg.. I love him, even if he will always be Dr. Decker in my head. His movies have one story, and nothing outside that one story makes it into the film. We don't get backstory on insignificant characters, we don't get crappy exposition - everything we need to know about the characters is told in the story, and by how the characters act.
My summation of the movie: GUH!!YAY!!GIMME!! It is not for the faint of heart - there are many very graphic scenes - there's one involving fingers that had me covering my eyes and screaming. Contrariwise, it made me want to lick the foley artist for coming up with a noise that conveyed the action perfectly. I still shudder when I think of that scene. I have an issue with things happening to fingers and eyes, and Cronenberg hit both those triggers in this movie.
I think this was the best movie I've seen all year.