Following his critically acclaimed directorial debut, Ben Affleck’s (Gone Baby Gone) sophomore feature sees him returning to his beloved Boston, and its criminal underbelly. Adapted from the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan, The Town follows a gang of bank robbers who all hail from Charlestown, Boston- an area with more armed robbers per square mile than anywhere else in the world (a fact with which the film opens).
Not content with directing credits alone Affleck heads up the cast as Doug MacRay, a criminal with a heart and a brain. MacRay is part of a tight-knit group of bank robbers including the slightly unhinged Jem (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker), ‘Gloansy’ the driver (Slaine, Gone Baby Gone) and (because you can’t have odd numbers of criminals) Desmond (Owen Burke). The gang holds up a bank, taking the manager Claire (Rebecca Hall, Please Give) hostage. After releasing Claire they discover she lives in their neighbourhood and could potentially finger them to the FBI.
While Jeremy Renner steals every scene he is in, other actors feel painfully out of place. Mad Man’s Jon Hamm overacts the role of Agent Frawley, the FBI man who will do anything to catch his target. Also falling into clichéd territory is Pete Postlethwaite (Usual Suspects) as the sociopathic florist Colm Fergus. Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) as Krista, Macray’s sometimes bed partner, seems terribly miscast. The actress is too pretty and too young (or perhaps Affleck is too old) for her backstory.
The Town is the classic one-last-job heist film. High adrenaline action sequences and the odd witty one-liner lift this film above what is essential a very average crime flick. While elements of the casting are questionable, aside from one poor performance, the actors do the best with what they were given. Unfortunately this story is not strong enough to handle the pathos being piled on it. Entertaining with enough intrigue to keep audiences’ attention, The Town is a good film despite its faults. Perhaps the film is most hampered by high expectations, which neither the plot, the cast nor the director could quite live up to.
3/5
First published in The Brag 18/10/2010
