Your reviews display both a point of view that is very different from mine, arsaib and justin. But that's why it was fascinating to read them in peace. I watched it this morning and what impressed me most (I have to confess that I were a little bit tired) was the complete but subtle turn of Cronenberg from a life-long lasting series of "guilty" films to a work that evokes an elegy for pure innocence in the characters. Cronenberg deflorated the self-confidence and the Instinct within human sense so much over almost three decades and now, he faces with the total opposite. But he didn't get completely rid of his popular trademarks and the physics of his earlier films changed to a gambling with sensual surfaces and arrangements of people with their environment (at least, in some remarkable Scenes). The whole film was so magnificently sublime but in a very specific way that was mostly far from a study about human behaviour patterns (is this word correct?) and more spiritual but yet, also very naturalistic without being realistic. Ah, it's difficult to get it clear when you're tired. But yes, it's a marvellous piece of Cinema and indeed one of the most remarkable films of 2007. And almost all of the actors where absolutely stunning - maybe except of Naomie Watts who's been better in the past. "Eastern Promises" is most interesting in the context of Cronenberg's whole Oeuvre but less interesting as a stand-alone film, imo. (23 out of 25)

By the way, a funny anecdote: Armin Mller-Stahl dubbed himself in the (surprisingly good) German version and each time when his character Semyon raises his voice (especially in the scene where he's angry about the murder his son commited), he didn't really manage to keep the russian accent and starts to speak German fluently without any accent.