Not that long ago, Ben Affleck was probably not the most respected Oscar winner around. True, he'd won it for co-writing a screenplay, but everyone knew him more or less as an actor, a so-so one at that, and as half of the odious "Bennifer". Truly, whoever came up with the idea of combing celebrity couple names into one moniker has earned a place in Hell.
At some point, Affleck dumped one Jennifer in favor of another one, settled down, started making better choices in his career, and now is a fairly good director as evidenced with The Town. He's not a great director, not yet, but he's apparently learned quite a bit about how to frame a film and keep it moving. While I doubt Affleck will ever get a second Oscar for acting, perhaps someday a second for directing could be in the cards. But, as I said, not yet.
The Town starts off with a simple statement of fact: one neighborhood in one city has produced more bank and armored car robbers than any other place in America. Whether this is true or not is immaterial. This is the premise, that this has been going on so long it's become a family business passed along from father to son, and here we have Affleck's Doug MacRay, a one-time aspiring hockey player now following in his incarcerated father Chris Cooper's footsteps. He has a crew of childhood buddies, all of whom have a role to play, and best friend Jim "Jem" Coughlin, played by the great Jeremy Renner, may need a special eye kept on him since he seems the one most likely to fly off the handle and commit an act of violence, something Affleck really doesn't want his boys to do. By their calculations, if everything goes right, no one needs to get hurt doing what they do.
Of course, there are wrinkles. Movies like this do not exist solely to show off Affleck, Renner, and Co.'s ability to plan the near-perfect heist and get away. First up, Affleck falls hard for a bank manager the group took hostage after one robbery, and though at first trying to make sure she doesn't recognize the gang unmasked, the relationship continues. I don't think I've seen Rebecca Hall in anything other than Woody Allen's Vicki Christina Barcelona, but she does a fine job here. Jim's sister Krista, a drug-addicted single mother who used to date Doug and may or may not claim her daughter is his (it isn't) seems to lack much of a purpose, but the usually ironically named Blake Lively has enough good scenes to warrant her presence. The late Pete Postlethwaite in a fairly small role is the surprisingly sinister mob boss who runs a cover business inside a florist shop, a man who doesn't seem to do much until near the end of the movie when he shows just how dangerous he really is. Finally, Jon Hamm's FBI agent in charge of the investigation is there to bring the boys in. He knows who they are; he just has to prove it. Hamm's basically a straight-arrow good guy, and that may be enough for this film, which ultimately doesn't ask him to do much else.
Aside from Renner and Hall, I didn't find too many of the actors leaving too much of an impression, but as a crime movie, the film works well, establishing character and motivation for most of the major players (Hamm being the exception), and giving a thrilling escape or two. Affleck, shooting in Boston near his childhood home in Cambridge, acts also as a co-writer, wisely choosing to up the ante on each successive crime until the ultimate robbery of Fenway Park. The neighborhood, Charlestown, seems to have its own morals and honor code, and the crew largely obey it, but when Hall, Hamm, and Postlethwaite get involved, there can be only ending for the crew, and it won't be a good one.
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