Ben Affleck, or 'Baffleck', as I have started calling him, did not grow up in Boston, so there's no connection there. This screenplay, by 'Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard' was based on the novel 'Prince of Thieves' by Chuck Hogan (published 2004) which is set in Charlestown, which allegedly produces more bank robbers and armoured car thieves than any other square mile in the world (a difficult fact to disprove, or prove).
There's a good pull going on here as bank robber romances bank manager Rebecca Hall, and we know she can identify his pal Jeremy Renner by the tattoo on his neck. Meanwhile cops John Hamm and Titus Welliver (also Argo) close in.
Blake Lively is a former girlfriend, Pete Postlethwaite the local gangster. Liked the touch of the robbers having pulled off a robbery, wearing nun outfits, see a cop in a car - who just turns the other way. A bit more of that sort of thing would have been interesting. Q laughed out loud when Postlethwaite and Affleck shoot each other.
Photographed by Robert Elswitt and hastily edited by Dylan Tichenor.
Quite long (two hours), but exciting enough, well cast, like Jimmy Joe Maher who lets them into the stadium - he looks a proper criminal. (One of only two appearances.)
You wouldn't think of Boston as having these tough gangster enclaves, somehow. Fenway Park got a mention in Legally Blonde 2 also.
6 March 2011: 'Made the mistake of watching 2 1/2 hour version. Did seem long and humourless.' True, film is humourless.
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