So Beautiful: What Dima & Perry provided each other!

What a great combo-platter: the Lit Prof with the strained marriage and the Mafiosa with a tight family!

Perry was bored with his life, operating on auto-pilot except for cheating on his more successful wife, with a student no less ~ Ewwww!
Dima was up against the firing wall, along with his family, and he knew it.


Perry provided Dima a breath of fresh air: a chance to bond with a largely decent, chivalrous man (except for that infidelity ~ the cad!).
And Dima provided Perry engagement in a world of high-risk / danger, even getting him to shoot a gun and kill a mobster.

Dima also played the Mentor to Perry by his example of being a passionately devoted family man.

I just loved their interaction: the big Russian Bear and the wide-eyed Academic.