In Eastern Promises, Cronenberg takes on Knightâs fairly-traditional-on-the-surface story of the Mafioso with a heart of gold, the Mafia family he works for and is working his way up through, and the blonde innocent who forces him to make decisions about doing the right thing. It gets more complicated than that, but that description will get you through the first half of the film. What makes it more than expected, initially, is Knight, who is so interested in the details of the lives into which he is looking. Story twists are all supported because, it seems, Knight twists only to push the characters into more complexity, not the other way around.
Cronenberg takes the story and up the ante.
The rest...
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