A review of the movie, "The Town."

Rating: Null/10 (18 September 2011)

First off, the movie The Town, is about the town, Charlestown, and how there are more robberies and armored car thieves in this town than any other town in the world. There is a robbery that takes place in this film and a hostage is taken and released. The main characters in this film are Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), and Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). Claire Keesey is the woman that is takes as a hostage and then released. She is threatened by James Coughlin because she would be investigated. Doug MacRay becomes acquainted with her to find out if she is going to tell the FBI anything important. Doug MacRay eventually develops feelings for Claire. This creates conflict between him and James. Doug ends up going against James to protect Claire. Claire is unaware that Doug and James are the robbers until later in the movie. Until that part, Claire and Doug become close (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
The theme of this film is about the town, Charlestown, and it being the town with more robberies and armored car thieves than anybody else in the world. The title of this film directly reflects the theme of this movie (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
According to me, the main characters in the movie, The Town, are Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), and Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
I have one example of a short plot point that is in reference to my thematic ideas. This example takes place when the FBI agents are describing how the four bank robbers are products of fathers that are criminals. Unfortunately, they followed in their fathers' footsteps. For example, James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) is one of the main characters and he inherits his father's violence. His father was a murderer and he too tried to commit violent acts especially against Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). There is additional conflict between James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner) and Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck). All three of these actors portrayed their characters in a great manner (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
Furthermore, I want to discuss my reference to one other film with appropriateness to the theme that is for this movie, The Town. In my opinion, the movie Jumper is somewhat similar to this movie. This is because the boy in the movie, Jumper, is a struggling bank robber and haves a past that is similar to Doug MacRay in the film, The Town. In addition, the young boy is pursued by people who want to capture him. There is some romance that occurs in both movies and the "girl" in each movie remains safe because of the main character. These are the type of movies that lets the audience know that male main characters that are somewhat seen as a "hero" do have a good side, but there can be emergence of their bad sides (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
Additionally, the director in the film, The Town, uses two techniques that I want to discuss. The first technique is the usage of motifs. For example, Ben Affleck uses motifs in this film. When the main characters are introduced in this film, they follow the same pattern of criminal activities that their fathers did. Furthermore, the image of the fighting Irish tattoo is used throughout this film. This image is very important. It is a part of the criminal profiling that goes on when it comes to the bank robbery. According to me, this tattoo is one of the main motifs in the film, The Town. Furthermore, the director uses different angles in this film to add to the suspense in the film. For instance, when the robbery is going on and the robber looks down to look at Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), this emphasizes the suspense and the acknowledgement of one of the main characters, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
In conclusion, this movie does have romantic scenes, but the theme of the film, The Town, is mainly about robbery. There is somewhat of a bad guy gone good aspect in this film. This is the unexpected "hero." Over all, this movie was great and I definitely recommend those who enjoy movies that are about crime to watch this film (Affleck & Iwanyk, 2001).
Reference Affleck, B. (Writer & Director) & Iwanyk, B. ( Producer). (2001). The town (Motion picture). United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.