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The diary of a dead teen-age prostitute leads a midwife (Naomi Watts) into the shadowy world of London’s vory v zakone, or Russian organized crime, a diasporic culture nimbly adjusting to the very worst aspects of an open society. Her concern and blithe impulsiveness provide the catalyst to the film’s real drama — a three-way power struggle between the avuncular but bloodless paterfamilias (Armin Mueller-Stahl), his weak son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel) and Kirill’s driver, Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen). Penned by Steven Knight, David Cronenberg’s thriller-cum-character-study is a dark morality play — occurring, naturally, at Christmas, and involving a stray infant — complete with angels, devils and an emerging savior. For a Cronenberg flick about a violent subculture, the film is surprisingly restrained, despite a couple of gruesome scenes involving cutting implements. Mortensen’s sardonic, enigmatic Nikolai owns the story — and this film. His sleek, serpentine Nikolai — who even sports tattooed markings warning “beware” — lies coiled, coolly observant and unreadable: ready to strike or slither away. In English, and Russian, with subtitles. 
This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2007.
