A great crime thriller

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2012)

Ben Affleck is probably most remembered for things like Daredevil (bad) or Gigli (atrocious), so you'll probably be forgiven if you didn't really want to go and see this movie. You'd be forgiven, but you would be asked to reconsider. Because 'The Town' is one of the best crime thrillers to come around in a helluva long time.
Affleck writes, directs and stars in this story about Doug, a bank robber struggling between the demons of his criminal past, and a hopeful new life in the form of love - and former heist victim - Claire (Rebecca Hall).
There are lots of action sequences in this movie. You've got the bank robberies and the car chases and the gunfights. All the good stuff you'd expect from a crime drama. But 'The Town' is so much more than that. It is a study of the hopeless, pigeon-holed lives of working class criminals, having nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, and what happens to these people when the chance for redemption rears its head. And at the heart of it all is a spectacular performance from Ben Affleck himself.
It's funny, because the last great Affleck performance I remember is 'Good Will Hunting'; and, lo and behold, he wrote that too. Affleck is seemingly at his best when he is control, and he calls all the shots here. The result is fantastic. He's helped, too, by some equally fantastic performances from Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner, and what could be a career-defining role for Blake Lively.
What probably lets the film down is its length. At two-and-a-half hours, it requires a lot of patience and attention, but it's worth it in the end. Maybe there could have been half an hour shaved off, but I then also can't recall any sequences that felt dispensable. Everything was there for a reason, meticulously written and wonderfully shot.
I remember reading somewhere that Ben Affleck was starting to become the Clint Eastwood of this generation. I scoffed at it. But watching this movie, and knowing what Affleck had done with 'Good Will Hunting', my opinion has begun to change. If writing and directing will make Affleck churn out films like 'The Town', then let the man write and direct at his leisure. A must-watch.