The Town

If you are anything like me, Ben Affleck is not your favorite actor. He doesn't even crack the top 20; but regardless of whatever you think about him, the man can direct. His debut with Gone Baby Gone was powerful, inspired, and could have easily been a fluke. Now that The Town has hit theaters, the truth is out: it wasn't a fluke and we are looking at a career that will result in many great movies in the future.

The Town is about a town (go figure) that has produced an inordinate amount of criminals who specialize in bank or armored car robberies. They are all from Charlestown, a neighborhood of Boston and apparently pretty dangerous if you are employed at a place that stores money for people. Doug Macray (Ben Affleck) and James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) are professional bank robbers who have very successfully stolen lots of money with their two nameless cohorts. The movie starts with a very well executed heist but after James takes a hostage (Rebecca Hall), the heat in the form of FBI agent Adam Fawley (Jon Hamm) begins to close in on them. As the heists get more dangerous, and Doug slowly falls in love with the hostage, the town becomes a place to leave behind.

Think Oceans 11 with less finesse and more guns. The bank robberies don't have much style, but they have the skill and the firepower to back up any mistakes they might make. It has been a while since I've seen a good heist film and Ben Affleck has done a great job making it very visually appealing. The guns are loud and the editing superb. I hate it when films shake the camera in an attempt to make the audience feel like the scene is intense. It just makes the scene confusing and no one appreciates it. I applaud Affleck for a well paced car chase and a splendid end shootout.

Unfortunately for Affleck and most of the rest of the cast, only two actors really shine. Jeremy Renner, fresh off The Hurt Locker, plays a hardcore Irish criminal with a penchant for overreacting and outacting everyone around him. His downfall is that he loves Doug. They are basically brothers and while Doug wants to get out of the game, James guilt trips him back in. He may be a sick, twisted criminal but he was raised in brotherhood created by the town around him. Which brings us to Jon Hamm. He may technically be the good guy in the film, but the entire audience is rooting against him. His methods are brutal and you really adopt the Charlestown attitude to law enforcement (basically, don't snitch) because of him. I saw an interview with Jon Hamm where he explained that after the movie, Bostonites would come up and tell him that they don't like him strictly because of his character.

The film suffers when the action slows down. Affleck and Hall's relationship feels a little forced. Every time they open up to each other about their pasts; it wasn't really heartfelt and dragged the mood down. The thick boston accents started to get annoying by the second scene and a lot of dialogue was lost because of it. I don't like to watch movies with subtitles on (unless they're British because then I have to) and I shouldn't need to.

The Town is still a very good movie, despite its shortcomings. It is no Gone Baby Gone but it is a Boston classic and you should go see it.

3 out of 4 stars

-Christopher O'Connell