Ben Affleck and first time writer Peter Craig bring us the 2nd effort in directing from Mr. Ben Affleck. First time we saw Affleck behind the camera was in the 2007 thriller Gone Baby Gone, which was received with high praise from many critics at the time. So i will admit right off the hop i am a Ben Affleck hater when it comes to his acting (since Good Will Hunting). However if he can possibly but together the kind of film that Gone Baby Gone was, he should seriously consider directing fulltime.
The Town is set in the boston suburb of Charlestown. Which we find out as the opening titles roll that it produces the greatest amount of bank robbers and armoured car robbers in america. The film opens with Doug Macray (played by Affleck) and his band of bank robbers knocking over a bank with expert precesion. With things taking a little longer than usual, they robbers decide to take a hostage in the form of the bank manager ( played by Rebecca Hall). Turns out they don’t need her and drop her off in the middle of no where. The band of bank robbers ( the 2nd lead played by Jeremy Renner) meets up after the robbery and worries that perhaps the bank manager would be able to I.D their masked faces or if she heard their voices again. Renner suggests murdering her, but Afflleck steps in and says he will “take care”of her. What follows is a random meeting in a laundrymat between Affleck and Hall and somehow in some miraculous way, they begin dating each other.
This is the first of only really a couple of glaring oddities in the movie.
The gang of thieves are persused by and FBI investigator ( played by John Hamm) and seems to figure out almost from the get go who these bank robbers are. For brevity sake i didn’t mind this, however it did feel like we are missing like another 20 mins of the story here. Where did this case come from?? Why should we care about these “good guy” FBI agents.
The gang strikes again, this time knocking over an aromoured car and it is quite the getaway they make for themsleves complete with the cop looking the other way at the end of the chase (best part of the movie).
With the boys getting away yet again, the story turns to the seriousness of the relationship between Affleck and his new girlfriend and the conflict between him and his friends who don’t agree with him dating her as she could turn them in if she put two and two together. Thank god, most movies that Affleck is in has characters that are dumb as posts and wouldn’t figure out a 5 piece puzzle of the first 4 were done for them.
Affleck decides he wants out of the bank robber business, but of course his “boss” played by Titus Welliver suggests he should take ONE MORE JOB. How many times have we heard this???
Anyways… you get the basic idea of the story.
What works is the basic premise of the bank robber tale. Bad guy conflicted as to what to do, meets girl and is STILL conflicted. I think we have seen this about 200 times in the past however the writing allows me at least to forgive the storyline.
I don’t think that the characters are developed well enough for us to care about any of them. Further, there is quite the amount of violence in this movie, however for all the shooting and bullets flying everywhere, hardly anyone gets shot in this movie.
Chris Cooper appears in a small part as Affleck’s dad in prison, it almost seems as though he was supposed to be a bigger part of this, yet they deicded against it. Please note, more Chris Cooper on screen is never a bad thing ( check out the Breach 2007).
The Good- The ending… loved the use of Fenway Park
The Bad- Ben Affleck acting in his OWN MOVIE.
The Ugly- Stunted Story Telling along with not alot of emotional connection with the characters. The movie was missing a certian something
The Verdict- Town gets 3 out of 5.
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