62. September 20th, 2010 Picture.

Sunday afternoon, Ratty and I decided that we should go see The Town.  It had come out that Friday, and honestly I couldn’t believe Ratty had waited all weekend to see it.  We bought tickets online for a later afternoon show, and headed into town a little early to grab a spot and stop at CVS to stock up on snacks.  Ratty had been raving about Pretzel M&M’s which sounded like they were right up my alley, a mix of salty and sweet, so I obviously needed to try them.  I think at one point prior to this, Ratty told me that he had bought me a bag, but then decided he needed to eat them instead. How thoughtful.  Since it was September 20th and all, you can TOTALLY see why all the aisles were filled with Halloween candy, so it made finding the Pretzel M&Ms that much harder.  Ratty and I walked up and down every.single.aisle looking for them.  We went to every register, looking to see if they had them in front, to no avail.  They’re pretty new, so I just chalked it up to the novelty of it all, saying that they probably couldn’t keep the shelves stocked fast enough.  I wandered away from Ratty in search of replacement candy, when I here him yell.  I turn the corner and see him holding 3 bags of Pretzel M&Ms, SCORE!  We grabbed one more, to make it fair, 2 bags each, and headed out to the movies.

I was pretty excited to see The Town, since it was directed by a fellow Cantabridgian Ben Affleck and was filmed in Charlestown and other areas in Boston.  The major shoot out at the end of the movie took place at Fenway Park, while many scenes were filmed in the North End and Southie.  I love watching actors try and speak with a Boston accent, and really appreciate it when they do it well (re: Jeremy Renner).  One of the major bank robbery scenes was filmed at the laundry mat on Ratty’s street in the North End, and a few nights my parking had to be re-routed due to street closures. For weeks this laundry mat had a sign outside saying it was the First National Bank of Boston, and it was comical to watch tourists try and go in looking for an ATM.  Up until a few months ago, it still had the FDIC sticker on the door. At one point, the production crew filmed a scene overnight on Ratty’s street, so letters were left on doorsteps letting residents know that bright lights would be shining in the windows all night.  I love watching movies and being able to think, Oh I’ve been there!  I’ve seen that!  That’s my street!  Now that Boston is becoming a little hub for movie production it’s becoming more and more frequent.

The movie was really great, well told and extremely suspenseful.  I had to shut my eyes a couple of times and ask Ratty to tell me when it was over.  You can tell that they really put a lot of thought into making sure that the movie was as genuine as possible.  Sure, someone watching the movie in Florida might not know that when you get to the end ofSalem Street in the North End, you can’t take a right because it’s a one way, but those little details are not lost on us Bostonians.  There were just 2 small details that were incorrect, and I assume it was to add to the suspense of the film.  I used to work at Fenway Park, back in high school and college, so I am very familiar with the areas inside the park. When Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner walked out of the money room, they walked down the main ramp by home plate and came out in the Pavillion, which is in the bleachers.  This is obviously not possible. Those two areas aren’t even remotely near eachother.  I assume they did this because the Pavillion is a bustle of activity, so making sure there were lots of employees and people walking by just added to the nerve-wracking tension.  Secondly, you can tell the area of Fenway where the shootout took place, was a set.  Where they park the ambulance is actually in that very spot, but it looks completely different.  You can tell that they didn’t want to shoot up the inside of Fenway, which I can totally understand, so they must have opted to re-create the hallway someplace else.

Anyway, the movie was really good, and I found myself rooting for the bank robbers to get away with it.  I asked Ratty at one point if he was rooting for them to get away too, and he just looked at me and was like, ‘No’.  Whatever, I was.  I am curious to see if The Town gets nominated for any awards.  I think that Jeremy Renner should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor because he really knocked it out of the park.  Apparently, to learn the accent, he went to dive bars all across the city.  He would strike up a conversation with a  townie, listen to how he spoke, then would pick up and go to another bar.  He’d start another conversation at the new bar, pretending to be from Boston and attempting the accent he had just heard at the previous bar.  Pretty cool.  I wish I bumped into him at a dive bar!