The book is always better than the movie...

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2008)

The book is always better than the movie. (Except when someone takes a half-baked book-idea and turns it into a great film. This has also often happened.) In this case, Dennis Lehane's book was better, just as his "Mystic River" book was better, even though they were both good films.
I thought Ed Harris was excellent, as was Morgan Freeman; but they are seasoned veterans and of course would be good in such a production. The two lead characters, both relative unknowns (relative in the Affleck brother's case being a pun unintended)were okay, nothing special; they had a good script which made them credible, but there was no big acting going on here.
Sometimes it's just...not a good idea to make a film from a complex, complicated story. There are so many characters and so many unexplained threads, and although the film tried hard to cover gaps in the storyline, it was still too diffused. Of course I enjoyed it, but it's not going to make film history.
I recommend this just the same, as a well-crafted film, based on a brilliant storyline.