Starring: Denis Leary, Colm Meany, Ian Hart, Martin Sheen and Famke Janssen.
Running Time: 93 minutes
Genre: Crime drama
A film I had never heard of until it was recommended to me on a film website, the late Ted Demme's 1998 Monument Ave. is a solid, if unspectacular crime drama, that has enough going for it through strong central performances (by Denis Leary in particular) to soften the traditional guises of the crime genre setting.
The story follows Bobby (Leary) and his role in the Boston crime scene, where he works for the ruthless Jackie (Colm Meany) and just so happens to sleep with his girlfriend Katy (Famke Janssen). Bobby's loyalty to Jackie is tested by a murder of one of Bobby's associates, Teddy (Billy Crudup), right in front of him and his crew after his release from prison. As the police begin to interfere and Jackie becomes even more paranoid, Bobby longs to escape from his life of crime with Katy. All sound familiar? It does because it has been done to a certain degree before. Irish mob thrillers, while mainly playing second to the Italian mob film (perhaps The Departed as an exception) have always presented darker, grittier sides of crime lifestyle, portraying a more low-level criminality and it is no exception here. It is all run-of-the-mill stuff, and while Leary's performance is one of his better and more focused portrayals, the material never rises above solid into anything genuinely remarkable or memorable.
A standard thriller. Monument Ave. has a good cast that are slightly let down by a generic set-up and finish. There are moments that suggest at something better could have been done with this film, and is evident in Leary's strong central performance, but the rest of the material never quite get to that level. A missed opportunity.
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