The Town" is an intense, riveting bank heist film with an excellent cast and a meaty plot. While the story is familiar - four men robbing a bank - this movie stands above other films in its genre.
Ben Affleck stars as Doug McRay, one of the robbers, but he also directed this fine film. Like in his directing debut "Gone Baby Gone," Affleck has set this film in his native Boston. His understanding of the city and its diverse population really comes through when watching the films he has directed.
The movie begins with our four robbers quickly and deftly taking over a bank. They wind up taking a hostage, a bank manager named Claire. Claire is released unharmed but quite shaken. However, Claire saw more of one of the robbers than she told FBI agents because she is fearful of her safety.
McRay decides to set up a chance meeting with Claire, talk to her, and find out what she knows about the identity of the men involved in the heist. While this was supposed to be a quick interview to learn what Claire might know, they quickly develop a good relationship. There is a great scene early in the movie where he apologies for her feeling uneasy, and she innocently replies, "It's not your fault.
Of course, as with all heist movies, Doug wants out of the bank-robbing game, but he's forced to stay in for one more payday, against his better judgment. This cliché hampers bank caper films, but it worked here.
Claire is played by Rebecca Hall, a fairly new and unknown face in Hollywood. Hall had an impressive standout performance in the 2008 Woody Allen film, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Beyond that movie, she hasn't been seen in a lot of other films.
Jeremy Renner, who earned an Academy Award nomination for last year's "The Hurt Locker," is one of the four robbers, and he brings an intensity to his role that shows he was deserving of that Oscar nomination. Also in the cast is an FBI agent played by Jon Hamm (TV's "Mad Men"), and he is a great foil for our villainous main characters. Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper (he won for "Adaptation") has a small-but-vital turn as Affleck's father.
Average movie-goers have beaten up Affleck for so long for some of his bad movies that they forget he's had some decent roles too, from "Chasing Amy" to "Hollywoodland" to the Academy Award-winning "Shakespeare In Love." While many critics disliked "Daredevil" and bashed Affleck for the film, I think it is one of the better comic book adaptations - and there have been several! -- in the past decade. As a director, Affleck has proven again that he knows what he's doing.
Boston has been the setting of other huge crime dramas in recent years, from the Academy-Award nominated "Mystic River" to the Academy-Award winning "The Departed." This film falls just a step short of those two excellent films, but it deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence.
Shot on a $37 million budget, "The Town" grossed $26 million in its opening weekend, and with the great reviews it's received, it will be profitable in another week. Top critics at www.rottentomatoes.com gave it an impressive 91 percent approval rating. Average movie-goers were equally impressed, with a whopping 67 percent of viewers giving it an ‘A' grade, and another 22 percent giving it a ‘B' grade,I've given out very few 'A' grades this year, but this film is deserving.
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