Cast: Denis Leary, Ian Hart, Jason Barry, John Diehl, Famke Janssen, Colm Meaney, Billy Crudup, Noah Emmerich, Martin Sheen, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Director: Ted Demme
Producers: Nicolas Clermont, Ted Demme, Elie Samaha, Jim Serpico, Joel Stillerman
Screenplay: Mike Armstrong
Cinematography: Adam Kimmel
U.S. Distributor: Lions Gate Releasing
October is Demme month. While it frequently occurs that actors in a family have movies released at the same time, it's much rarer for such an event to happen with directors. This month, however, as Jonathan Demme's Beloved is hogging the headlines, Monument Ave., the product of Ted Demme (Jonathan's nephew), is also opening. And, although the two films are radically different in tone, style, and intent, both share a common trait: they're worth seeing.
Monument Ave. is set in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, where the influx of yuppies and "new money" is threatening to stifle the old, established Irish community which has been in place for decades. The film is a study of the ways that the men and women of Charlestown respond to internal and external pressures - how they close ranks, shut their mouths, and mete out their own brand of justice. Outside help is not wanted; in fact, it is met with anger and resistance. Monument Ave. examines how a series of volatile incidents bring the current social situation to a boil.
The boss in the blue collar community is Jackie O'Hara (Colm Meaney), a tough guy who doesn't challenge many Irish gangster clichés. In his view, there's just one unpardonable sin: disloyalty. When a local boy, Teddy (Billy Crudup, currently starring in Without Limits), gets out of prison early because he is suspected of having ratted on Jackie, the older man has him gunned down in a pub, then appears at the funeral with words of comfort for the family and a few dollars to cover the expenses. Feelings for Jackie in the neighborhood are complex - he is feared and respected, but nearly everyone resents his all-encompassing control.
Bobby O'Grady (Denis Leary) and Mouse Murphy (Ian Hart) are a couple of working stiffs trapped by the daily grind that is life in Charlestown. With their dull-witted cab driver friend, Digger (John Diehl), and Bobby's cousin from Dublin, Seamus (Jason Barry), they form a quartet that steals new cars from the cross-town yuppies and turns them over to Jackie's chop shop. These nightly forays provide them with enough cash to fuel a substantial cocaine habit. However, when Teddy is killed while enjoying a drink in their company, Bobby's anger towards Jackie begins to simmer, and the arrival of a cop from the outside (Martin Sheen) adds another wild card to an increasingly-unstable situation.
Monument Ave. is a talky motion picture, but the dialogue is absorbing and intelligent, and the movie is most successful when Demme follows a fifteen minute conversation through all of its various permutations. The topics covered are certainly diverse - everything from naked movie stars to the geography of Scandinavia (with the countries represented on a table top using beer bottles). When shots ring out, as they do several times during Monument Ave., they come as loud interruptions, and are unexpected because we're paying such careful attention to what the characters are saying.
The film also offers one of the most chilling displays of racism in a recent motion picture. Even though there is no actual violence, the dispositions of the characters (who are incensed that a black man would have the temerity to wander their streets) makes it a profoundly disturbing incident. Demme uses this sequence to drive home the point of how twisted the attitude of an insulated community can become. It takes Seamus, who's visiting from Ireland, to put things in perspective when he remarks on the ugliness and horror of the situation.
Since his early motion picture days, when he was typically called upon to play the fast-talking wiseguy, Denis Leary has matured considerably in his craft. Here, he's on-target as the angry, impotent Bobby, who dreams of escaping the community's clutches, but can't find a focal point for his escalating rage. Leary's portrayal allows us to understand the character's mindset, even if it's difficult to sympathize with him (his actions towards the black man open a gulf between him and the audience). Leary has come a long way since he appeared in another Demme film, The Ref. Supporting him is a fine group of somewhat-obscure names with familiar faces. Ian Hart, whose best-known role was as John Lennon in Backbeat, plays Mouse. Colm Meaney, the Star Trek regular, is boss Jackie. Famke Janssen, Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye, is Katy, a local girl caught between Jackie and Bobby, while Jeanne Tripplehorn is a yuppie woman who catches Bobby's eye. Jason Barry, one of Leonardo Di Caprio's steerage comrades in James Cameron's Titanic, has the pivotal part of Seamus. And Noah Emmerich, familiar from Demme's previous movie, Beautiful Girls, is another blue collar Bostoner trapped in Jackie's web.
Stories about closed communities ruled by shady types represent fairly standard motion picture fare, especially on the independent circuit. Several such features are released each year, and, after a while, they all tend to blur together. With fresh dialogue and a willingness to show his protagonists in a less-than-favorable light, Demme has found a way to make this entry memorable. Monument Ave. is an engaging movie that deserves to emerge from the lengthy shadow cast by the autumn giants like his uncle's Beloved.
© 1998 James Berardinelli