Eastern Promises

When Anna visits Nikolai in the hospital after the knife fight, he is shown lying in his bed, and he turns his head to look at her, but when the camera shifts back to him, his head hasn't moved and he is still looking straight ahead.

Azim and his nephew Ekrem are all apparently Turkish characters and Azim is part of the Turkish mafia.

However, the Turkish spoken by the actors is heavily broken and pronounced entirely improperly, the Turkish words and dialog are clearly phonetically memorized.

In the last river scene, the baby is alternately crying or sleeping as the camera angle switches back and forth.

In the end credits, "Make up" is listed as "Maek up" at one point.

When Soyka's dead body is shown washed up on shore, his pant leg is rolled-up above the knee cap.

There is a camera angle change, and Soyka's pants are below the knee cap.

The crime scene detective rolls the pants up and shows the star tattoo on the knee cap to the other officers.

While at the party, Nikolai has the young girl on his lap.

They are drinking what appears to be a fifth of vodka.

The girl seems to take a drink, but the vodka never reaches the neck of the bottle.

She never makes a motion to swallow and immediately she kisses Nikolai.

He motions for her to feed him some of the vodka.

Again the vodka never reaches the neck of the bottle.

After being admitted to the family, Nikolai goes to the cellar to tell Kirill.

They both drink brandy from a bottle and its content varies from almost full to half empty between shots.

When Anna approaches the Trans-Siberian Restaurant for the first time, a crew member's arm and equipment are visible reflected in the shiny brass plaque to the left of the door.

When Nikolai is sitting in the chair in the brothel, his jacket sleeve is pulled up to his elbow.

When Kiril pulls Nikolai to his feet, the sleeve is pulled all the way down.

When Nikolai and Semyon are drinking vodka during the diary exchange, Semyon empties his glass, but when he puts it back on the table it is full.

In the scene where Nikolai is returning the bike to Anna at one point he pulls out a black cloth and wipes off one of the handlebars.

A few seconds later however the cloth has vanished.

The scenes involving the football crowds make no logical sense for a real match at Stamford Bridge.

In the first shot, the crowd is exiting the ground via the Britannia Gate on Fulham Road after a game.

In the second shot, the crowd is moving from Fulham Broadway along Fulham Road towards the Britannia Gate (as it would before a game); in the third shot, a crowd of people is crossing Lillee Road and entering Brompton Cemetary via the north gate (as it would before a game) but in the next shot (in the cemetery itself), the crowd is moving in the opposite direction, towards the north gate and away from the ground as it would after a game.

The Chelsea fans also are only wearing blue shirts, not actual Chelsea shirts as they would be wearing.

Tatiana has been on heroin according to the diary, and has had several shots recently, as can be seen on the needle marks.

Therefore, the baby was addicted at birth and has to be treated with methadone or such.

At 3 months of age, the baby should have the drugs out of his system.

How much was in his system at birth depends on how soon before delivery the mother took drugs.

The long term effects are dependent on the amount of drugs given to the mother especially if there was drug use in the first trimester.

Many times there is a delay of several years before difficulties begin to appear, especially at school-age when learning difficulties become evident.

When Anna is leaving Trans-Siberian for the second time, Semyon kisses her goodbye once on each cheek.

Anyone who has ever been to a Russian house for a visit knows that Russians kiss three times back, once on each cheek, returning back to the first cheek for the last kiss.

During the public baths scene, when Nikolaï (Viggo Mortensen) walks toward the camera with Azim, you can clearly see on Viggo's left shoulder the Elvish tattoo he got while in New Zealand for the Lord of the Rings shooting (the tattoo is "nine" in elvish Tengwar writing).

After Helen takes the baby out of the bed and carries her to Anna, for a short moment the baby breaks the fourth wall, clearly looking into the camera and at the camera crew.

After Anna and Nikolai rescue the baby, Nikolai and Kyrill leave together.

Anna is left holding the baby, having only a motorbike as transport.

When Nicolai is about to cut of the fingers from Soyka's dead body, he first puts his tie over his right shoulder.

There is a camera angle change and the tie is back in its original position just as Nicolai grabs his tools.

In the next shot the tie is back above Nicolai's shoulder.

After Nikolai was excepted by the mafia bosses, he gets his stars tattooed.

When he is in the public bath, the tattoos are completely healed.

There was one day between these scenes.

When they digitally renamed the hospital from the Middlesex Hospital (actual location) to the "Trafalgar Hospital" (fictitious location), they didn't also adjust the dates.

The roman dates engraved next to "Trafalgar Hospital" are MDCCXLV (1745) and MCMXXIX (1929), neither of which have any relevance to the battle of Trafalgar, which was fought in 1805.

In the hospital, Nikolai's pulse reading changes from 47 to 55 in between shots.

This is a good popcorn movie: It adequately entertains while you munch on snacks. But once you start thinking, it hits the fan and it can even bring you to the point of anger.

This is one of those smaller, independent films that only actors who are confident in their craft, and wanting a challenge, undertake.Although Viggo is better known for "A history of Violence" and "Lord of the Rings", his performance here as a Russian mobster in London is chillingly engaging.

After seeing Viggo Mortensen in movies like "The Indian Runner" and "A History of Violence", "Eastern Promises" is a piece of work to be reckoned with. Here you got a menacing mob from Russia, who caused a stir with a young woman.

The opening scenes in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" has a man seated in a barber's chair in London, we are left asking ourselves, how will this man die in his own blood. Cronenberg offers his viewers the freedom to make assumptions as well as the liberation for the unfortunate victim not expecting his fate when the straight-edged razor will inflict him in the throat or to when he tries to kick out from possible death by kicking his feet.

God, I don't know how the "masses" could give this a 7.8 rating.

I enjoyed "Eastern Promises" for the surprisingly moving storyline, crisp direction by the great David Cronenberg, and compelling performances by all the main actors, especially Viggo Mortensen in his Oscar-nominated role as Nikolai, a "clean-up man" and driver for a local mobster who has many secrets and more compassion than one would expect in someone in his bleak position. The movie is an intriguing peek into the dark, terrifying world of Russian organized crime syndicates in London, where brutal men deal in drugs, illegal booze smuggling, money laundering, and sex trafficking.

This actor is not like other hollywood monkeys. You don't see him acting like a circus monkey all over internet.

Eastern promises, by David Cronenberg. I think that this movie is MUCH better than history of violence, which I found kind of disappointing.

Here we have a great story to build on to make an exciting movie! But it just wont happen.