The Town is an engaging heist movie in which Ben Affleck performs a trifecta of writing, acting and directing. From a story standpoint there is not much new. A gang of close knit buddies in Boston's Charlestown neighborhood hang together and rob banks together. They are beholden to an older gangster who helps organize the heists and they must pay him a cut of the loot.
From the trailer we learn the gang takes a female hostage on one of the robberies to ensure a safe getaway and later on the Ben Affleck character forms a romantic relationship with her. She does not know the man she meets in the laundromat is the same man who held her at gunpoint.
The film lives up to the trailer with a suspenseful story of a man who has known nothing in life but crime and wants to find a new life for himself.
Ben Affleck is Doug MacRay the head of the gang. Jeremy Renner in another strong performance is James "Jem" Coughlin a member of the gang who's violent tendencies are beginning to worry Doug. Rebecca Hall is Claire the bank manager who falls for Doug and John Hamm (Mad Men) is the FBI agent pursuing the gang. Pete Postlethwaite, in one of his last roles, is Fergie the Florist, a crime boss. Chris Cooper has a small role as Doug's father in prison. Blake Lively is very strong as a Jem's sister, a woman who is also trapped by her environment and does not know how to escape..
The movie uses the Charlestown locations and accents to capture a sense of authenticity to the film. Affleck does well to overcome some of the cliches inherit in the plot. A movie like this could go in multiple directions and I was glad that I couldn't be sure where the film would take me until the end.
Gone, Baby Gone, Affleck's first film was a stronger character study, but The Town is a strong second effort from an up and coming director.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
2 comments:
This movie was assinine. Criminals engaging in massive shootouts in a major urban environment and the police can't catch them????...No helicopters following these chases, no cameras to track them...the chases can end by the police shutting a bridge dow????...Explain that to me, what did the bridge have to do with preventing them from being caught...They also come from an area of town where bank robbery is a trade....nonsense... Then the baffoon FBI agents can't pin these crimes on the obvious gang that couldn;t shoot straight...So they are experienced criminals and marksman, yet time and time again, they have trouble killing anyone at point blank range with automatic weapons...Also, do a double take on the Boston scenes, this film only had aerial shots of boston, the remainder of the scenes were elsewhere, probably Toronto....The FBI guy (from MadMen) was a total clown...the relationship with the hostage was predictable nonsense...How about Affleks ten minute foray back into the world of drugs...As for suspense, the only suspense was waiting for suspense...I was not concerned about a single character for a single minute....With all the hype and big previews, this movie totally blew....a perfect example of a 1 star movie
If you want to watch a great heist movie, see "The Killing", one of the greatest robbery movies ever made...as for "The Town", leave it
After reading Anonymous's review of "THE TOWN", we demand a review of "THE KILLING" by Mr. MH. We are starting to agree with Mr. Anonymous
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