USA
124 mins.
Directed by Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper
There's something about a good crime movie in Boston that feels fresh every time, no matter how often they go back. The Departed and Gone Baby Gone are both shining examples of this. Enter: The Town.
Not only is it a great Boston crime saga, but it could very well be the best American cops & robbers movie since Michael Mann's Heat. In today's short attention span culture, where a good movie is sometimes touted as the best of its kind since (insert barely one-year-old movie here) Heat's 1995 era seems like a lifetime ago. I'd say the only difference between the two is that The Town spends much more time with the crooks than the cops. Other than that, they are both solid films that will have no problem standing the test of time.
Ben Affleck's second directorial effort manages to reinvent himself as a new Eastwood/Gibson-type player in the world of film, an A-list actor transitioning into a legitimate double threat. If Gone Baby Gone was all about hard choices, The Town is all about hard living. And shootouts. The visceral impact of the action feels fresh while not straying too far from classical American heist flicks.
Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, is the cool and collected leader of a small group of bank robbers in the Charlestown area of Boston, known as The Town. It's also the bank-robbing capital of the world. Why hasn't this movie been done sooner? Maybe it has and I'm an idiot. I guess better late than never.
MacRay's crew includes the loose cannon nutjob James "Jem" Coughlin played fantastically by Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). He has an itchy trigger finger and is becoming increasingly unpredictable during their daring bank robberies. This hazard combined with general world-weariness and a crushing sense of mortality cause Doug to yearn for something more and preferably away from Charlestown and crazy Jem.
Coughlin also has a slutty single-mom sister (Blake Lively) that still holds a torch for MacRay and throws him the occasional booty call in hopes he'll see the light and give in to her crackhead charms. Throw in Chris Cooper as Doug's dad, doing life in prison and appearing in only one scene, but a great scene nonetheless.
The lately underused Pete Postlethwaite (small parts in both Inception and the remake of Clash of the Titans) plays the Florist, the guy who fixes up the bank jobs for MacRay and his crew in exchange for a cut. He gets a meaty scene toward the end where he threatens Affleck's MacRay to great affect and made me want to see more Postlethwaite in great films immediately.
Anyway, the main thrust of the film is that Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), a bank manager taken hostage by MacRay and his crew during the opening heist may or may not be able to finger one or more of the crew to the Feds. Is she working for the FBI? Will she bring them down? Why is MacRay infatuated with her? Is it just reverse Stockholm Syndrome? These questions and more are answered with some serious gusto in several tense action and dialogue moments. It all makes for solid entertainment and Affleck has a great eye for what works in dramatic thrillers.
There are three major heist set pieces that highlight each act of the movie and they are all distinct in their own way, from their disguises to the way they take the banks down. The final heist involves the takedown of a Boston institution and is appropriately hopeless in all the right ways. Some people might not think it's right to root for the criminals, but Affleck does a great job of doing just that, making you question your moral high ground with every character revelation and plot curve.
The final piece in the puzzle is Mad Men's Jon Hamm as FBI guy Adam Frawley. Agent Frawley and his partner Dino (a very good Titus Welliver) are the insatiable law dogs hot on the heels of MacRay and his crew. The great thing about The Town is that from nearly the beginning, the cops are on to Doug and his boys, they just don't have any hard evidence pinning them to the scenes of the crimes. That becomes a major sticking point as the film goes on and as the tension ratchets up, so do the stakes and it is all done believably and very effectively.
Blake Lively does very well in the small role she is given, but Rebecca Hall, though very beautiful and usually a reliable actress (Please Give), doesn't make much of an impact and sort of ends up sleepwalking through scenes of intermittent crying and melancholy smiles. Jon Hamm's character isn't anywhere near as fleshed out as Affleck's Doug MacRay and so we don't get much to root for, even though he's memorable enough in the role.
I'm excited to see what Affleck does next. Will he complete his very own Boston crime trilogy? Or will he head for different territory? Either way I think it will be a win. Come for the heists, stay for the performances. Look for this at Oscar time to at the very least get nods for Affleck's direction, best picture and possibly a few acting awards. Most likely Renner as best supporting actor.
Who'd have thought the star of Gigli and Surviving Christmas would direct one of the best movies of 2010? That's why I love the movies. As long as you're alive, you've got a chance to make something better.
lMC
124 mins.
Directed by Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper
There's something about a good crime movie in Boston that feels fresh every time, no matter how often they go back. The Departed and Gone Baby Gone are both shining examples of this. Enter: The Town.
Not only is it a great Boston crime saga, but it could very well be the best American cops & robbers movie since Michael Mann's Heat. In today's short attention span culture, where a good movie is sometimes touted as the best of its kind since (insert barely one-year-old movie here) Heat's 1995 era seems like a lifetime ago. I'd say the only difference between the two is that The Town spends much more time with the crooks than the cops. Other than that, they are both solid films that will have no problem standing the test of time.
Ben Affleck's second directorial effort manages to reinvent himself as a new Eastwood/Gibson-type player in the world of film, an A-list actor transitioning into a legitimate double threat. If Gone Baby Gone was all about hard choices, The Town is all about hard living. And shootouts. The visceral impact of the action feels fresh while not straying too far from classical American heist flicks.
Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, is the cool and collected leader of a small group of bank robbers in the Charlestown area of Boston, known as The Town. It's also the bank-robbing capital of the world. Why hasn't this movie been done sooner? Maybe it has and I'm an idiot. I guess better late than never.
MacRay's crew includes the loose cannon nutjob James "Jem" Coughlin played fantastically by Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker). He has an itchy trigger finger and is becoming increasingly unpredictable during their daring bank robberies. This hazard combined with general world-weariness and a crushing sense of mortality cause Doug to yearn for something more and preferably away from Charlestown and crazy Jem.
Coughlin also has a slutty single-mom sister (Blake Lively) that still holds a torch for MacRay and throws him the occasional booty call in hopes he'll see the light and give in to her crackhead charms. Throw in Chris Cooper as Doug's dad, doing life in prison and appearing in only one scene, but a great scene nonetheless.
The lately underused Pete Postlethwaite (small parts in both Inception and the remake of Clash of the Titans) plays the Florist, the guy who fixes up the bank jobs for MacRay and his crew in exchange for a cut. He gets a meaty scene toward the end where he threatens Affleck's MacRay to great affect and made me want to see more Postlethwaite in great films immediately.
Anyway, the main thrust of the film is that Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), a bank manager taken hostage by MacRay and his crew during the opening heist may or may not be able to finger one or more of the crew to the Feds. Is she working for the FBI? Will she bring them down? Why is MacRay infatuated with her? Is it just reverse Stockholm Syndrome? These questions and more are answered with some serious gusto in several tense action and dialogue moments. It all makes for solid entertainment and Affleck has a great eye for what works in dramatic thrillers.
There are three major heist set pieces that highlight each act of the movie and they are all distinct in their own way, from their disguises to the way they take the banks down. The final heist involves the takedown of a Boston institution and is appropriately hopeless in all the right ways. Some people might not think it's right to root for the criminals, but Affleck does a great job of doing just that, making you question your moral high ground with every character revelation and plot curve.
The final piece in the puzzle is Mad Men's Jon Hamm as FBI guy Adam Frawley. Agent Frawley and his partner Dino (a very good Titus Welliver) are the insatiable law dogs hot on the heels of MacRay and his crew. The great thing about The Town is that from nearly the beginning, the cops are on to Doug and his boys, they just don't have any hard evidence pinning them to the scenes of the crimes. That becomes a major sticking point as the film goes on and as the tension ratchets up, so do the stakes and it is all done believably and very effectively.
Blake Lively does very well in the small role she is given, but Rebecca Hall, though very beautiful and usually a reliable actress (Please Give), doesn't make much of an impact and sort of ends up sleepwalking through scenes of intermittent crying and melancholy smiles. Jon Hamm's character isn't anywhere near as fleshed out as Affleck's Doug MacRay and so we don't get much to root for, even though he's memorable enough in the role.
I'm excited to see what Affleck does next. Will he complete his very own Boston crime trilogy? Or will he head for different territory? Either way I think it will be a win. Come for the heists, stay for the performances. Look for this at Oscar time to at the very least get nods for Affleck's direction, best picture and possibly a few acting awards. Most likely Renner as best supporting actor.
Who'd have thought the star of Gigli and Surviving Christmas would direct one of the best movies of 2010? That's why I love the movies. As long as you're alive, you've got a chance to make something better.
lMC
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