The Town

(2010)

Directed by

Ben Affleck

Review by Todd Plucknett

Posted - 9/26/10

The Town, based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, was one of the most anticipated movies of the season, if for nothing else than its action-filled, astonishing trailer that was one of the year’s elite movie previews. Oscar-winner Ben Affleck makes his second stint behind the camera (the first being 2007’s amazing Gone Baby Gone), and he proves once again that he has a real talent for directing actors and creating a believable and personal atmosphere. This is a terrific film.

Doug McRay (Ben Affleck) leads his team of criminals into a bank robbery to start the film. One of the managers of the bank Claire (the always great Rebecca Hall) tried to alert authorities, so Doug’s trigger-happy best friend James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) kidnaps her and threatens to kill her if she told the FBI about what happened. FBI Agent Adam Frawley (John Hamm) was all over the case anyway, and his brutal brand of justice intimidates everyone involved. This becomes a cat-and-mouse game, as Doug, whose notorious criminal father Stephen McRay (Oscar-winner Chris Cooper) is already in prison and whose deadbeat former girlfriend (and mother of his child) Krista (Blake Lively) is in trouble with the law, dreams of pulling one final job so he can leave his hometown (and bank-robbing capital of the world) Charlestown, Massachusetts for Florida.

The film has a lot of the same elements as past films, which is understandable because the whole heist genre has been done countless times. Hamm’s character reminded me a lot of Russell Crowe in LA Confidential in how he conducted business, unafraid of beating someone to a pulp who he thinks might know something. Renner’s character is somewhat standard, being the one guy who says that he would rather die than go back to jail. I found a solid comparison in What Doesn’t Kill You, Ethan Hawke’s character in particular. That is a similarly great and intense crime film that far too few people saw. The heist scenes are a lot like those of The Dark Knight. Affleck is the guy who wants to pull off one last job, which has become somewhat of a cliché in film, but his character is fresh enough to avoid that downfall. It is this part of the story that reminded me of the film’s closest relative: Michael Mann’s Heat. The team of bank robbers being pursued by a quick-witted cop is the basis for both films. The editing and action-thriller aspects make the films feel like they belong together. That is not a criticism, though. Almost every film is inspired by ones of the past, and Heat is basically the granddaddy of modern heist films.

The acting in the film is fantastic, just like it was in Gone Baby Gone. Affleck knows how to direct his performers, but this time he cast himself in the lead role, rather than his brother. He owns that part, which is his first truly great starring performance in several years. Renner is terrific, and it is just a matter of time before he is a huge box office star. Hamm is going to get a bunch of movie offers now that he is the king on Mad Men and his performance here is really strong, holding up with his more well-known costars. Hall can’t miss a note. Cooper makes the most of his one scene. Pete Postlethwaite plays a florist who is pulling all the strings, and he is (if there is one) the one weak link in the cast. With all of those proven stars and Oscar-nominees, I never would have guessed that the best performance in the film would belong to Blake Lively. Her white trash character could get her an Oscar nod, just like a similar single mother character in Gone Baby Gone did for Amy Ryan. Lively has really come into her own as an actress, and she is going to be a force in the industry for a long time.

Those strong characters are the main characteristic that differentiates this film from others in this genre. It may have excessive gunfire and action scenes, but the movie is a personal and humane drama at its core. Each character is extremely well-developed, which is a credit to Affleck, Aaron Stockard, and Peter Craig’s screenplay. Their attention to detail and their handling of the smaller-scaled scenes are what make the film such a pleasure to watch. And of course since Affleck was involved in the writing, there are those astonishing minute-long monologues that each character gets. There are a handful of those in this film, and each one of them is flawlessly-written and directed.

Now while this film is one of the year’s best and one of the most thrilling films I have seen in quite some time, it doesn’t quite beat out Gone Baby Gone. That film just seemed like it was a big tighter. The Town runs somewhere around 130 minutes, which is not that long, but the audience does begin to feel the length when it seems to be winding down after about 90 minutes. Also, Affleck’s previous feature had all those moral questions unloaded at the end of the film, which left a haunting impact on everyone who saw it. The Town, on the other hand, has a somewhat conventional conclusion, but one that will please the audience. Surprisingly, the two films are nothing alike, though. A lot of times when a director has a hit first feature, they will try to recreate it. This is a completely different genre. Affleck is becoming one of the most interesting voices in cinema, and that is after only three films he has been involved in writing or directing. I have heard chatter about his career revival being potentially equivalent to that of Clint Eastwood, who of course is miles better behind the camera than he is in front of it. You know when critics compare anyone to Clint then that person must be doing something right. If Affleck keeps making films like these, then I would have no problem with that assessment. I cannot wait to see where he goes from here.

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