Showtime
/Mr. Loverpants and I redirected funds from the baby's college savings to our entertainment budget on Saturday night. And I have no regrets. We went to see the Brothers Affleck's newest cinematic rendering of Boston life. I have to give them kudos because they always manage, i.e. always as in "Good Will Hunting" and now in "Gone Baby Gone" to capture some mannerism native to Boston that I had not otherwise been able to articulate. In "GBG," the mother of the missing daughter lives a very low class, self-indulgent life but she punctuates every sentence with, "Gawd fah-bid," or "Gawd buh-less them" which is so!! familiar to me!! after 2 years of service to East Boston, where every other person you meet is an Italian-American who wants to be a gangster and wears a giant golden crucifix on a chain and doesn't ever appreciate the irony. Oh sweet sanctimony. How rich are your fibers in Beantown.
The only aspect of the film that caused some cognitive dissonance is the fact that the film is set in my 'hood, Dorchester, the finest ghetto of Boston, where the Vietnamese per capita is noticeably higher than elsewhere in the city. And yet, as the review from Slate notes, the Brothers Affleck managed to completely evacuate little Vietnam from the film set. What the?
I highly recommend this flick, even if you don't live in Dorchester and didn't work for the City of Boston for 2 years and don't have any fascination with Casey Affleck's clear complexion.
I also recommend texting your friend Balger to tell him that you're going to see "Gone Baby Gone" and enjoying the laugh later when he tells you that he thought that was some chi chi baby shop that you were venturing to on your hot little Saturday night. HA!