Rain + Cold = Movies

In Eastern Promises, a London nurse (Naomi Watts) takes a diary from a dead girl that leads her into the violent world of the Russian mafia. She meets an enigmatic hitman (Viggo Mortenson) and gets led deeper and deeper into their world. David Cronenberg brings his trademark graphic violence and disturbing images, including a set-piece that brings new definition to the term ‘naked violence’. It’s a dark and intelligent film, but one in which every Russian born character of note is a violent murderer, a prostitute or racist animal. At least one film on this subject was inevitable after the shock caused by the Alexander Litvinenko case in London in 2006, although this one sticks with gangs rather than dissidents.

There Will be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson’s look at the early oil industry. Where there is Daniel Day-Lewis, there will be an acting nomination lurking nearby. The film starts with a single hole in the dusty ground and slowly works its way up to land grabs and pipelines. The main conflict of the story revolves around Day-Lewis’s oil man and a local evangelical preacher called Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Like his previous movies (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) Anderson sets up breathtaking character based set pieces and lets the actors strut their stuff. We found this film to be so relentlessly guys-doing-guy-things, that this writer now doubts he is a ‘real man’. Do women get anything out of films like this? Female perspectives in the comments welcome.

Gone Baby Gone is the surprise here. Based on a Dennis Lehane novel (of Mystic River fame) it is directed by … wait for it … Ben Affleck. It tells the story of a local Boston private detective (Casey Affleck) who investigates the disappearance of a young girl. The more he knows the more ambiguous the case becomes and finally he is faced with a set of unclear choices. This film sets up the question/problem then doesn’t answer it. Instead it refuses to take a moral side and leaves you having to make up your own mind. We appreciate the assumption of viewer intelligence. Despite the ‘Bennifer’ tabloid monstrosity and ‘Gigli’ it shouldn’t be surprising that Affleck could direct such a mature effort. He originally crashed on the scene taking a writing Oscar for ‘Good Will Hunting’.

Not seen yet: Sweeney Todd, Juno (not a ‘real men’ pic).

Other tips: Back in the home arena, Lust, Caution is well worth the watch but beware, the uncensored version lacks subtitles and is a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese and Shanghainese. Polyglots only.