Powerful and Outstanding Performances, Reasonable Thriller. Affleck succeeds it again in the direction.

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2011)

Ben Affleck is a great surprise behind cameras since his directorial debut in "Gone Baby Gone", and here with the thrilling "The Town" he takes some of the same characteristics that made of his first film a good film about crime events in a city where the connections between ordinary people and criminals are very close. The film is very good but for some reason I thought that more could be added to make it a great film, more thrills, more violence and an excitement in a few moments but at least the dramatical parts are among the best in a film of this genre.
"The Town" of the title is Charleston and the crime flies high there from the first scene presented in the film in a tense and well executed bank robbing made by Doug (Affleck), James (Jeremy Renner) and a few other partners. During the heist they decide to take a hostage with them, a female manager (Rebecca Hall), fearing that the cops would appear. After her release, Doug gets involved in a relationship with her, trying to see if she can give informations to the FBI (his inside level), and starts a romance with her (on the outside level he revels to be a very nice guy), hiding the fact that he kidnapped her, at last he starts to reevaluate his life as a robber and thinking of a new future in another town along with this great woman. Doug's problems while trying to reach this illusion are: 1) his dangerous friend James who doesn't like this relationship fearing that she might tell something to the police; 2) his boss (Pete Postlethwaite) who keeps sending more and more "jobs" for him to execute; 3) a young woman (Blake Lively) interested on him that only knows how to provoke this guy 4) and, of course, a headstrong FBI Agent (Jon Hamm) who is getting closer to the group of thieves.
There's nothing new in the plot of "The Town" except for the important fact the drama takes a new and interesting level that was more captivating than the suspense built through the whole story (based on the book by Chuck Hogan "Prince of Thieves"). Among the great dramatical moments are all the scenes between Affleck and Hall, where his character shares with this frightened woman many things of his past without giving away about his life of crimes, and a surprising sincerity in his talks that makes her unarmed against this guy, who simply appeared in her life in her worst life moment and he created that terrible moment. This contrast was excellent! And a scene where he visits his father (the excellent Chris Cooper) in jail, another great moment. The heist scenes, the car chase and the conclusion are among the nice action sequences, but I was expecting more energy coming out of it, to make me glued in the seat wanting more. It delivers something good, it is well made but it had potential to be more.
"The Town" performed well at the box office, and that's why everybody heard things about the film and the awards nomination (including Oscar) to the great Jeremy Renner. While I do think there's things to be praised about him and his acting here (the accent and a different tone of voice, his mannerisms and a dangerous look), I still think that there wasn't so much for all this awards buzz. Why's that? I expected him to be a more menacing character with violent and shocking moments, and someone with more important lines, more than just mumbling words. He should be the character of who we can't take our eyes off, with a powerful screen presence where we would have the chance to be surprised with his next moves because he's a very unpredictable guy and we haven't seen much of that (except in his scene with Hall and when he and his friend beat up a guy in the apartment). Jon Hamm was much more effective and interesting as the FBI agent and he should be the one nominated for the awards (even though my preference between the ignored names would be Andrew Garfield for "The Social Network"). But, again, Renner's is quite good here but not enough for this Oscar, SAG and Golden Globe talks. Affleck is amazing in the main role in a very mature character, he's the element of surprise here; Rebecca Hall also amazing because she has the ability in playing such a high range of different roles that you forget about the actress and think more of her performance, her character, she totally disappears behind them and that is a great work. The late Pete Postlethwaite delivers an outstanding performance here, sad that his screen time is so short but he stole the show for himself and gladly Bafta was gentle enough to remember of his performance here, and instead of Renner they nominated him, a name that didn't make it in these awards lists.
It is a good film, with powerful moments. More could have been made to be a more appealing film to me. 9/10