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Article: blood, tears and vodka Eastern Promises Sicko
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- October 28, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Gangsters, like sunsets, are best viewed from a distance. A
different country; a different time, even. A good rule of thumb is:
the less you know of the setting, the more plausible its organised
crime network is likely to seem. They put a horse's head in their
enemy's bed in 1940s New York? Sure, Mr Coppola, if you say so. The
chainsaw was a popular weapon in 1980s Miami? Okeydokey,
Mr De Palma. But simply inserting a
fully-formed mafia into the here-and-now runs the risk of
scepticism at best, ridicule at worst. And the spectre of silliness
hangs like a novelty balloon over Eastern Promises (18), David
Cronenberg's London-set Russian gangster flick.
Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) is a driver ...