Movie Review: "The Town"

Authen-titious.

I begin this movie review with a comment from La Parisienne, whom I texted right after I saw the movie. In reply to my initial enthusiastic response, she said, "I'm not sure how I feel about you praising Affleck."  Oh, it's true -- after Ben Affleck's long purgatory in tabloid "Bennifer" and Gigli misery, after the Cine-Sib and I sniped at him with the demeaning nickname "Manfleck," we were all of us more or less wondering, "What's wrong with Ben Affleck?" while his pal Matt Damon went zooming off to box office stardom with the Bourne movies.

Then there was 2007's Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck's debut as director, and it made me stop poking fun at him.  It also made me sit up and pay attention to Casey Affleck bursting onto the scene as a serious acting talent in his own right -- but that's another review.  Gone Baby Gone was a revelation, and it was the moment when I thought, "Hey, maybe Affleck's better as a director than an actor" and "So let's see if he can make us forget that 'Bennifer' and Gigli ever happened.  Win our love back, Ben.  Make us remember how delighted we were to meet you in Good Will Hunting.  Show us you've grown up."  Meanwhile, I'm hoping and praying that Gone Baby Gone wasn't just a one-off fluke.

The Town, Ben Affleck's sophomore project as director (he is also a co-writer), isn't quite as good as the stunning Gone Baby Gone, but it is still fantastic storytelling.  It is a gritty urban crime drama that is also a personal psychological drama and, in its way, a love letter to Affleck's childhood home of Boston.  


A bit of background: Charlestown is a rough Boston neighborhood infamous for its criminal tendencies, and in the film Affleck plays Doug MacRay, a native who is robbing banks and armored cars even as he is struggling to leave his criminal life behind.  He soon discovers that it's far easier to be a criminal than to become an honest man, and Affleck's portrayal of MacRay's personal internal struggle is compelling viewing.  MacRay's life is quickly complicated by his -- and his masked bank robbing posse's -- most recent heist; in it, he meets a beautiful banker (Rebecca Hall).  But don't be fooled into thinking this is some conventional sappy tale about the redemptive power of love.  The Town is much more complex than that, and one of the things I loved about it was the fact that I didn't know what was going to happen a million years before it happened.  From massive car chases and shootouts in Boston's tiny streets to little details, Affleck gets this film right.

In terms of the cast:  However good Affleck is as the conflicted MacRay, he is consistently upstaged by the remarkable Jeremy Renner (most recently of the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker) as MacRay's friend and partner in crime, Jem Coughlin.  A dangerous, unpredictable loose cannon, Coughlin is like a ticking time bomb or a tightly wound spring on the verge of popping.  One wonders whether it's the authorities or Coughlin that is really MacRay's biggest problem.

Cinema stalwarts and established character actors Chris Cooper and Pete Postlewaite bring both weight and interest to the film, and Blake Lively as a troubled, trashy single mother and Jon Hamm as the FBI agent determined to bring down MacRay and Coughlin round out the cast, both are quite good in these departures from their usual TV roles.

I don't want to spoil the flick, so I'm leaving out details, but I have to say that the ending was not as well-constructed as the rest of the movie, and because of it, I'm grading this a B+.  Nevertheless, as an overall effort, The Town was a surprise and a delight -- so rarely do we get movies like this, much less at the end of the summer. Kudos, Ben.  All is forgiven ... Yes, even Gigli.  (I do have to ask, though, do real Boston criminals really wear THAT much Boston-emblazoned and Red Sox gear?)

The Town runs 123 minutes and is rated R for strong violence, some sexuality, language, and reference to drug use.

RottenTomatoes gives The Town the stunningly Fresh rating of 93%.

The trailer is here: