The High Cost of Living Emotionally Taxing

The High Cost of Living

Back in September, during my last day of TIFF, I was at the point where I had seen my fill of good movies and was not expecting to be struck by any of my remaining films for that day. Especially since none of them had generated much buzz. Then came Deborah Chow’s The High Cost of Living, a film that completely caught me off guard and made me a believer in Zach Braff at the same time.

When a local drug dealer Henry (Zach Braff) strikes down a pregnant woman, Nathalie (Isabelle Blais), while driving drunk, he is riddled with guilt. Compelled to find out if the woman survived or not Henry does all he can to track her down. Unable to come to terms with the lost her unborn child as a result accident, Nathalie still carries the stillborn fetus inside her. When Henry and Nathalie’s path finally cross, Henry is unable to tell her that he was the driver that fateful night. To make matters worse for Henry, he and Nathalie strike up a genuine friendship that grows stronger and stronger.

The High Cost of Living not only ended up winning the Best Canadian First Feature award at TIFF but it also made TIFF’s 2010 Canada’s Top Ten year-end list. Although I am sure some will disagree, I think the film is worthy of the praise it has received. One of the reasons the film works so well is that it finds a way to make a conventional story feel new again. Relationships formed from guilt and grief are not new in cinema, but Deborah Chow manages to find a way to bring real emotional weight to the film.

Part of this is due to the great performances by Isabelle Blais and Zach Braff. Blais has the most of the heavy lifting to do in the film and she sells it wonderfully. Even as Chow piles on the melodrama, such as the moments with her husband, Blais finds a way to make Nathalie continually interesting. Zach Braff was a huge surprise as he proves he can truly lose himself in a role. I never really bought into Braff’s characters in his previous films (Garden State, The Last Kiss, etc.), but Braff finally convinced me he can handle leading man roles on the big screen with his subtle but effective work in this film. Braff and Blais have fantastic chemistry which helps to elevate the film from the “T.V. movie of the week” it could have easily become into a feature film. In many ways their relationship reminded me of the one in Ben Affleck’s The Town but done much better.

Deborah Chow should also be praised for sustaining the film’s overall emotion for as long as she does. She shows immense talent as a writer and is definitely a director to keep an eye on in the future. While the premise of The High Cost of Living may not be new, Chow and her talented lead actors help to make the film a rather pleasant surprise.

Will Boston Be Hollywood’s Next New York?

Thanks to the recent success of films like The Town, The Social Network and The Fighter it seems that Boston has become the city of choice for Hollywood these days. Although some are claiming that Boston has become the new New York of cinema, I do not think Boston has reached that level yet. If anything Boston seems to be turning into the east equivalent of the “dirty south”.

While corruption and crime have been prevalent in cinematic takes on Boston for years, there is a new wave of “Irish trailer trash” that has become a prominent fixture in many of the recent films. These are the characters that love their alcohol, frequently use drugs and take pride in their lack of education. In the past, these traits would stereotypically be associated with cinematic characters from the southern states. What was once considered a sign of southern backwardness has now become a badge of honour for Boston.

The fascinating thing about the recent emergence of Boston in modern day cinema is the portrayal of Boston women. Boston is becoming Hollywood’s hot bed for skanky and/or corrupt women. Whether it is the deadbeat mom Helen McCready (Amy Ryan) in Gone Baby Gone; the cokehead girlfriend Krista Coughlin (Blake Lively) in The Town; the over-barring mother of nine Alice Ward in The Fighter’s Alice Ward (Melissa Leo); or the Lady MacBeth-like Annabeth Marcus (Laura Linney) in Mystic River, the women of Boston are nothing like the ones you would find in movies set in New York or Los Angeles.

Speaking of New York and Los Angeles, one of the main reasons Boston has not reached their level in cinematic dominance yet is due to lack of romanticism. This is crucial when you look at how these cities are portrayed in films. Sure there are the grimy streets of New York featured in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and Taxi Driver; not to mention the urban decay of the Los Angeles’ hoods featured in Boyz N The Hood and Colors. Yet, there are countless other films that romanticize both of these cities. Can anyone picture New York without thinking of Woody Allen’s Manhattan or Annie Hall? Can you think of LA without the glitz and glamour featured in everything from Sunset Boulevard to Mulholland Dr.?

Besides the corruption, and the obsession with sports, there is nothing in recent films that would make you drop everything and move to Boston. However, films like The Firm and The Departed have provided us glimpses of how the rich live in Boston. If we are to believe Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, the affluent ones in Boston can even survive an alien invasion without even a scratch on their car. Does this make Boston a must on your bucket list? While I am not asking for more Good Will Hunting type of films where the blue collar guy gets the girl, I would like to see other facets to Boston on screen besides the caricatures that Hollywood is portraying more and more frequently. I think if Boston is to be relevant in film as places like New York or L.A. we need to see the diversity that the city has to offer.

The Town is Like Any Other Town

The Town

Can anyone name a member of the National Board of Review? Who are they? And why do so many film lovers, myself included, go into hysterics once they release their annual best of the year list? Despite not knowing who actually comprises the NBR, their annual best of list marks the official start of the three month long award season. Though I normally agree with their selections, there have been times when the NBR has unjustly raised my hopes for a film. Such was the case with the cops and robbers caper, The Town. As The Town made NBR’s top ten list this year, I was expecting the film to have something truly magical. That special moment which made The Town standout above the other 250 films that the NBR screened this year. Instead, The Town ended up being a standard crime film with a few well shot action sequences.

Set in the Charlestown section of Boston, notoriously known for the high percentage of criminals it produces, The Town follows a group of friends as they try to elude the FBI while going after one final score. Ring leader Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) is starting to tire of the criminal lifestyle. Although good at what he does, he knows that if he stays in Charlestown he will end up behind bars like his father, Stephen (Chris Cooper). Doug envisions a better life for himself after meeting Claire (Rebecca Hall), who happens to be the manager of a bank MacRay’s team has robbed. While Doug longs for a life outside of Charlestown, his best friend James (Jeremy Renner) wants the team to continue their streak of bank robberies. With FBI Agent Frawley (John Hamm) closing in on the gang, Doug must decide where is loyalties truly lie.

The Town is a decent, if not predictable, crime movie. What makes the film work for the most part are the performances from the cast. Not to mention the skilled direction of Ben Affleck. Affleck proved with his directorial debut, and vastly superior film, Gone Baby Gone, that he knows how to get strong performances out of his cast. I especially enjoyed the work of Pete Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper in their very brief cameos. I also like how Affleck orchestrates his action sequences. The heist scenes, particularly the one that evolves into a brilliant car chase scene with the gang evading the cops in a minivan. These are easily the most tenses moments in the entire film.

So why did this film not “wow” me the way it did the NBR? I just could not get past its predictability. Not to mention that The Town has too many loose ends which are never fully realized. The two most interesting aspects of the story are Doug’s relationship with his father, and the father’s past with Fergus (Postlethwaite). Unfortunately we only get a small snippet of the father/son arc. The audience must rely on Fergus to shed further light into Stephen’s defeated state. Yet Fergus is introduced far too late in the picture. The Town spends so much time building up both the love story and the Doug/Agent Frawley angle that the sudden appearance of Fergus towards the end seems rather out of place. Either introduce Fergus sooner, and cut down on the pointless Krista (Blake Lively) plotline, or leave both him and Stephan out of the picture completely.

As heist films go, The Town is enjoyable as it often feels like a lighter version of Michael Mann’s Heat. The film works best if you temper your expectations. If you go in expecting anything more you will be greatly disappointed. Many are calling The Town one of the year’s best films, but it is ultimately nothing more than a competent crime film that may keep you entertained for a few hours.