Random Movie: The Town (2010)

Ben Affleck’s first directing gig turned out pretty well, shocking many critics who had otherwise determined that his fame was fading. When The Town was coming out the question then became “can Affleck do it again or was Gone Baby Gone just a fluke?”

Affleck stars as Doug MacRay, the leader of a gang of professional bank robbers in the Boston suburb of Charlestown. Under the charge of Fergie the florist (Pete Postlethwaite), MacRay and his team take down banks, armored cars, and anything else with a large sum of money to be had. When friend Jim (Jeremy Renner) loses control during a job, beats a man, and takes bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage, MacRay befriends Claire to see if she knows enough to turn them in. Now having started a relationship with Claire and under constant surveillance and pressure from FBI agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm), MacRay begins to consider leaving his life of crime behind.

The most interesting aspect of most heist movies can also be its biggest obstacle: the guys you want to root for are thieving, non-productive members of society. It is no different here as MacRay, Jim, and the other guys are not robbing banks to fight back against evil capitalists or to destroy a corrupt business but for plain ol’ greed. It can be difficult to root for a bunch of rapscallions that you normally are against. Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, Affleck also as co-screenwriter is able to balance the good and bad of the group off of the leads. Neither MacRay, Jim, or Frawley is shown in absolutes, but in shades of grey.

MacRay is set up closer to a tragic hero than a typical bank robber. He does what he does begrudgingly as a way of honoring his incarcerated father but also as a means to escape the stranglehold he sees on his life. He is a far more sympathetic character than even Frawley, who is honorable but is portrayed in less than admirable light. The conflict exists with the excitable Jim, played excellently by Renner who even earned an Academy Award nomination here, who takes personal offense to the notion that MacRay is looking to go legit. Jim takes on a lot of the unsavory deeds which means that as an audience, we are more apt to dislike him making MacRay look better in comparison.

This movie was my first viewing of anything with Hamm in it and all of the good things I’ve heard about him were manifested here. He certainly is not only a fine actor but has a commanding presence, even if his character is unjustly vilified. Affleck is no slouch either which proves the man can act as long as someone competent is directing a half decent story. The bit performances by Blake Lively, Chris Cooper, and Titus Welliver are similarly well-rounded even though I did not understand the point of Lively’s character. A large chunk of the movie rests on Hall when heists are not being planned or executed. While the gestation of MacRay and Claire’s relationship felt a bit rushed, it also felt genuine to inspire MacRay to clean up his act.

As for the heists, this movie has drawn favorable comparisons to Heat, only set in Boston. The jobs themselves are quick, well-planned and well-thought out. Affleck composes these sequences with a lot of energy and a lot of tension and in their midst, you forget that you are watching the bad guys steal other people’s money and get sucked in by the proceedings. This is altogether a different type of movie than Gone Baby Gone but it is masterfully created and tightly edited to make the over two hour runtime feel shortened. If this is the type of output we can expect from Affleck in the director’s chair, I would strongly advocate that he stick with that as opposed to the next Gigli or Daredevil.