The Town review

I still say that Ben Affleck's directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" is one of the best from an actor turned director. If you've never seen it, seek out ASAP. It's a great crime drama that's also set in the gritty Boston streets, but for as much blood and bruises that are in it there is also a lot of soul and terrific performances. Affleck's "The Town" isn't as strong, but it's still very damn good. Don't walk in looking for a straight away cops and robbers heist picture as there isn't quite as much emphasis on that as there is on the characters of Doug (Affleck) and Claire (Rebecca Hall). The opening is a fast paced and well executed bank robbery in which Doug and his crew including long time friend James (played perfectly by Jeremy Renner) take the money and run out the back, but also take a hostage as a just-in-case situation which happens to be Claire. They let her go, but James takes her drivers license and the next day informs the rest of the crew that the Claire he notices that she lives about four block away from them and could possibly rat them out to the FBI.

Doug decides to take a job tailing her just to make sure that doesn't happen and in the course of things meets and begins seeing her socially. Doug isn't the usual simple hard nosed bad ass robber thug like his buddies; he does have a heart and a brain although throughout the movie to two rarely agree. On the bank robbers tail is FBI agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) who is a by the book, but harder to shake than most cops. And almost just as dangerous as him to Doug is the mystery man behind the gang known as 'The Florist' played by Pete Postlethwaite. It's not a large role, but damn does he make it count. Actually the same can be said of Blake Lively who plays Krista, Doug's ex. Lively mixes trashy sex appeal with actually care. It's an underused character, but she does exceedingly well each time she gets her shot. In the end though all performances were thoroughly fantastic and Affleck has again assembled great talents and pulled from them some fine, fine work including himself.

Now the reason (right now) I don't feel it's quite great is due to it's pacing and conventions. Some of the "The Town" drags a bit and gets dry. Mainly it's when the FBI is playing catch up while will slowly see Doug and Claire's more than likely doom relationship blossom more and more. However... I will say that the final act in my opinion fully elevates the entire picture. "The Town" is a world we've seen and often times seen done a bit better, but how it all pans out in it's novel fashion is lovely, strong and completely convincing. In addition to the great performances Affleck gets out of this cast he also crafts a strong, ear blasting shoot out near the end that is almost at Michael Mann level. There seems to have been a lot of attention places into the bigger pieces of the movie to make them feel authentic, dramatic and visceral as opposed to just being cool. Affleck's pacing sometimes even feels like work done in the 70's by Lumet or Friedkin in the crime genre.

Really "The Town" is really terrific thriller that I may come to fully love down the line. There's a lot of strong work on the screen here that ought to get some awards attention. Despite the weird backlash that Ben Affleck endured in the early 2000's I think it's safe to say it's over. Here is proves to not just be a terrific writer, but also a director and actor. He goes full Boston southie and never turns back once. Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner, who I actually thought DID deserve the Best Actor win for "The Hurt Locker" does the same and does the kind of character work similar to Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas". The difference is how feelings about his character change from beginning to end and the impact he has. I do intend to sit down and re-watch this soon to see how it suits me then, but for know all I can say is if you're looking a for a conventional crime drama that's still got the goods, the action, the emotion and the characters then look no further than "The Town".