Starts with a Bang, Ends with a Whimper.

Rating: 4/10 (2 October 2011)

Four childhood friends - Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), Jem Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert Magloan (Slaine) and Dez Elden (Owen Burke) - rob a bank in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, kidnapping bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) in the process. They release her after the heist (but not before stealing her license and promising that they would rape and kill her if she went to the police). MacRay befriends Claire in an attempt to learn more about the FBI investigation surrounding the robbery, eventually falling in love with her. After a botched armored car robbery in North Boston, MacRay tells his boss - crime lord Fergie Colm (Pete Postlethwaite) - that he's retiring to Florida. After making a few not-so-thinly veiled threats, he convinces MacRay to do one last job for him.
For the life of me, I can't understand the critical acclaim that this film has acquired (it currently holds a 94% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was listed on the AFI's list of the top ten films from 2010). Despite Ben Affleck's surprisingly slick direction and several briskly paced action scenes (each featuring a unique set of disguises), the film is ultimately a victim of its own horrendous writing (proving once and for all how little input Affleck had on 1997's "Good Will Hunting").
The film's greatest writing concern is its inability to reasonably suspend the disbelief in the audience. While it seems reasonable to take a hostage to ensure a safe getaway from a bank heist, I don't believe for a second that anybody - especially one of the abductors - would think it reasonable to date the abductee. As that is seemingly the moral crux of the film (a case for MacRay's changed life-style and ultimate redemption), the entire production collapses at the failure of that premise.
The denouement of the film attempts to show Claire betraying MacCray by setting him up to be arrested when he comes to visit her (much in the same tradition as 2009's "Pubic Enemies"). Unlike its immediate antecedent, however, the supposed betrayal is completely unwarranted by the script. The film opens with MacCray kidnapping her at gunpoint, stealing her driver's license and threatening to rape and kill her if she went to the police. The stress caused by this incident causes her to leave her job. Then her abductor begins a prolonged intimate relationship with her. Her proximity to him so soon after the robbery causes her to become suspect in the FBI's eyes (it's not difficult to imagine her as an inside conspirator for the four actual robbers). The film then has the borderline-offensive audacity to paint her - a genuine victim - as a traitor against the implicitly noble MacRay.
Fans of heist films will find this to be a more-or-less worthy addition to the genre. Likewise, those in accordance with the nation's critical heartbeat will find the film more than agreeable. As for the rest, however, this is a tired, clichéd and thread-bare film unworthy of the acclaim that it has generated.