Fantastic Film When Dubbed for Cable

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2011)

There are two versions of this movie. The theatrical release DVD version suffers from the actors' lack of budget and perhaps experience projecting on camera the South Boston speech rhythms that powerfully underlay the film. In the broadcast dubbed edition everything comes together with extremely powerful effect. Try as hard as you can to find someone who has recorded this movie from broadcast, you'll be very, very richly rewarded. Ben Affleck has shown himself to be a rather unappreciated fine character actor in such films as Hollywood Land -- and here to be a problematic first-time director, handling complexity with some grace during camera work on this feature and then with consummate, almost poetic brilliance in dubbing the dialog.