Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Summer Lovin'
The axiom that you should order
oysters
only in months with an “R” in them
originates in biology. Summer is breeding season, when the energy that usually
goes into bulking up (and making lots of juicy meat) gets diverted to reproduc-
tion. To experience the best the oyster has to offer, wait till the weather turns
colder.
Tips
Long Wharf, and it stars Matt Damon,
who grew up in Cambridge. In 2007,
Boston was part of the scenery of
Gone
Baby Gone,
local boy Ben Affleck's direc-
torial debut; Denzel Washington's second
effort behind the camera,
The Great
Debaters
(which filmed scenes on the
Harvard campus); and family comedy
The
Game Plan
(hey, The Rock needs work
too). And by the time you read this, you'll
probably know whether you want to spend
10 bucks to see
21
(2008), a based-on-a-
true-story caper about card-counting MIT
students who won millions at Las Vegas
casinos.
One huge potential stumbling block
for movies set (not just filmed) in Boston
is the nearly impossible feat of rendering
local accents accurately. With one big
exception, the cast of
Good Will Hunt-
ing
hardly trips up. This is the Boston
movie to see if you have time for just one.
It makes Boston and Cambridge look
sensational and perceptively explores the
town-gown divide, Robin Williams'
unfortunate brogue notwithstanding.
Coauthors and costars Affleck and
Damon are boyhood friends, and Damon
is a couple of semesters short of his Har-
vard degree.
Good Will Hunting, The Perfect
Storm,
and
Mystic River
are among the
best movies with Boston-area backdrops,
and they have an awful lot of bad com-
pany. Pictures worth checking out for
more than just the locations include
A
Civil Action, The Spanish Prisoner,
Next Stop Wonderland
(all Boston),
State and Main
(Manchester-by-the-
Sea), and
The Love Letter
(Rockport).
If you have a high tolerance for sports
and sentiment, rent
Fever Pitch,
a 103-
minute video valentine to Boston and the
Red Sox. Many scenes were filmed at
Fenway Park, and the ending had to be
reshot after the Sox won the World Series
in 2004 for the first time in 86 years. The
script is sappy but captures the maniacal-
fan persona with alarming accuracy, and
the soundtrack is excellent.
Some older movies are worth setting
the DVR for. They include
Blown Away
(especially the scenes when the action
first shifts to Boston),
The Verdict
(Boston),
Glory
(a stylish re-creation of
19th-century Beacon Hill),
The Witches
of Eastwick
(Cohasset), and the senti-
mental favorite,
Love Story
(Cambridge).
Numerous projects are in the pipeline,
including
Pink Panther 2,
in which
Steve Martin plays Inspector Clouseau
and Boston plays Paris; romantic come-
dies
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
(Jennifer
Garner and Matthew McConaughey),
The Proposal
(Sandra Bullock and Ryan
Reynolds),
Bachelor Number 2
(Kate
Hudson and Dane Cook), and
Ashecliffe,
which is based on
Shutter Island,
by Den-
nis Lehane (who also wrote the novels
Mystic River
and
Gone, Baby, Gone),
and
will be directed by Scorsese.
TELEVISION
Most TV shows set in Boston use an
occasional exterior location shot but oth-
erwise don't get anywhere near the city.
