A growing partnership
Viggo Mortenson and David Cronenberg are fast forging an artistically impressive partnership in the league of John Wayne and John Ford, Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorcese.
Mortenson dominates the screen with a magnetic presence, and eerily compelling stillness. Coupling nicely with Naomi Watt's reliably excellent performance, he presents a nuanced portrait of a man precariously poised between worlds and roles. He excellently underplays the tension simmering just below the surface.
Cronenberg also does a masterful job of creating a tight, controlled thriller very much of and about its setting--for all of the overglamorous and pseudo-edgy portrayals of London, he delves into the substrata of a vibrant city to show its visceral and pulsating underworld as it collides with the working class existence of "normal, ordinary people."