Who's in It: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinéad Cusack, Jerzy Skolimowski
The Basics: A pregnant, heroin-addicted teen gives birth to a baby girl and dies. A London midwife (Watts) finds the teen's diary, written in Russian, and starts the hunt for information about her and where her newborn fits into the tragedy of her mother's life. What she finds is the Russian mob, a gang of terrifying men that includes a chauffeur (Mortensen). That she doesn't just go to some Russian Orthodox church or the police for help first, and that once she sees how potentially lethal Mortensen is and doesn't run screaming from him, are just part of the excellently weird push-pull attraction to evil going on. But that's all I'll say on that. It's a film full of weird twists, none of which I'll be spoiling here.
What's the Deal? A gangster movie is not exactly a gangster movie when director David Cronenberg gets his hands on it. His commitment to vivisecting human behavior, especially the most uncomfortable parts, makes other filmmakers look like the middlebrow hacks they are. But if all you're looking for is a brooding, brutal thriller, then you'll get plenty of that, too. The naked-Viggo-knife-fights-two-hit-men scene alone — the one you'll be hearing a lot about from friends who've already seen it — is insane, like nothing I've seen in possibly forever, and worth the price of admission all by itself. Either way, whether you're in it for the killings or the art, this is one of the best movies of the year.
Also? It's a Great Christmas Movie: I'm not being funny here. It's set at Christmastime, and there's a reason for that. On one very real level, it's about a baby with nowhere to go, a single woman trying to shelter it, bad guys who are after the child and who plan to do terrible things to it, and some strangers who get involved and whose reasons for doing so are unclear until late in the film.
Who'll Get Overlooked for an Award but Should Get One Anyway: Mortensen will surely be honored by critics or awards-givers come year's end, but French actor Cassel as Mortensen's closest mob pal is the most frenzied, freaked-out, self-hating character to come along in a movie in recent memory. Why any actor would choose "hero" roles over meaty, unusual, complicated characters like this is a mystery.
Once You See This, Then Go Back and Watch: A History of Violence.