Oscar Race: Eastern Promises

Ok, kicked the box full of Oscar movies I need to see between now and the Academy Awards sqaw in the nuts last week. Rented "Eastern Promises" in HD from Comcast and....well let's just say I understand why it was not nominated for "Best Bicture," despite deserving a "Best Actor" nomination for Viggo Mortensen.

My biggest gripe (and an important one at that) is the story (PLOT SPOLIERS). The story had sooo many undeveloped threads. This movie smacked of a pilot for an F/X series that was not picked up so they added an ending and released it as a film (sound familiar, David Lynch? Yeah, I'm talking about that promising piece of shit you put out, Muholland Dr.).

Threads I would expect to see developed over a 3-4 season series: (1) what was Naomi Watts' character doing in a maternity ward in Russia (no, this was not thoughtfully explained - fuck you)?; (2) how did Viggo Mortensen's character become so deep into the Russia mafia and for what purpose?; (3) just what the fuck did Armin Mueller-Stahl's mafia family do (other than a sex trade)?; (4) was Vincent Cassel's character actually gay and what Mortensen playing that angle up?

The acting was top notch (although Naimi Watts was outacted by the boys' club in this one). The tea-baggin', donkey-punchiun',I-don't-care-if-I-look-gay-jumping-on-you-in-a-spa-naked fight scene was a sight to behold. I've never seen so much awkward nakedness in a movie (Sienfeld's "bad naked") - but man, it made a hell of a fight scene. Viggo deserves the Oscar for this fight scene alone, not to mention his complete transformation into Russian mafia scum, accent, tattoos, and all. His Russian was pretty damn good.

Oscar Verdict: In a vaccum, Viggo deserves an Oscar. I will have to compare his performance to the other nominees: Jones, Clooney, Day-Lewis, and Depp. My money is on Jones, Depp, or Clooney based upon the "come guys, its about time" factor.