"The Town" sizzles with suspense and superb performances

Rating: 8/10 (17 September 2010)

You may now officially forget about Armaggedon, Pearl Harbor, Gigli, and Daredevil. The Ben Affleck we first came to know 12 years ago when he wrote his Oscar-winning script for "Good Will Hunting" is now back in business.
Affleck's second effort in the director's chair, following his superb "Gone Baby Gone" back in 2007, once again lands him back in the mean streets of working class Boston. Based on the award-winning novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan, the story outline in "The Town" is mostly nothing new, as the majority of it is a routine police procedural involving FBI agents on the hunt for a group of talented bank robbers led by Affleck and Jeremy Renner. The plot itself doesn't have many surprises, for we in the audience know that the robbers will always get away until the climactic stand-off with the police towards the end. Affleck knows he isn't creating anything original here with the plot, but he successfully takes the genre of the inner-city crime thriller and executes it with great precision - with superb acting performances, a sprinkling of tender romance, and a heart-pounding level of suspense throughout. Oh yeah, and did I mention that those nun costumes they wear when committing the robberies are really badass?
The performances themselves are the heart of the film, as Affleck has cast actors in roles that make them completely believable and allow the audience to care about them. Blake Lively is outstanding in her very small role as a drugged out stripper, even though she has no more than 10 minutes of screen time. She is completely unrecognizable from her well-known role on "Gossip Girl." Jeremy Renner is terrifying as Affleck's co-leader of the gang. One can sense through his character just how much this life of crime in part of his blood, even if he tries to hide his true emotions by hiding behind violence and intimidation. The talented veteran Chris Cooper is also spectacular as Affleck's father in prison. His one, 3-minute long scene with Affleck behind glass could be a training manual for young actors wondering how it's done. Everyone else in the film, including Affleck, is strong and does the best they can at making their characters appear authentic.
Affleck appears to also have a great understanding of suspense, pacing, and editing, as I was completely immersed in every moment of the film - from the gripping opening minute until the ending credits. The film rarely feels like a typical slam-bam action movie (until the last 20 minutes when the film goes a bit over the top with a larger than necessary climax), but rather as a character-driven drama that exposes the culture of the people in this neighborhood who live in this cycle of generational crime. It's just a part of who these people are and what they know. Some of them desire to get out of it, but then they feel like they are "too good" for their friends by leaving them behind, as is true with the struggle of leaving any type of criminal gang. Affleck does a solid job in the script department by allowing the fast-paced dialogue amongst these characters to feel natural. He even throws in an occasional witty and hysterical line to break the film's serious tension. One that I especially liked was a satirical reference to crime shows like CSI and Bones. Some of the dialogue is difficult to hear given the strong Boston accents, but you can make most of it out.
The action / bank robberies are exceptionally directed and worth the price of admission themselves, as one would expect in a film focused on umm, drum roll please..bank robbers. However, they are intelligently spaced apart throughout the film's 2 hour run time to never make them too mundane. There are only 3 total robberies / heists in the film, with a great deal of character development in between. There is actually an enormous amount of tension and build-up between the 1st and 2nd heists in the film, which allows the 2nd heist to have that much more of an effect on the audience when it does occur. The only flaw in the direction of these scenes, is when the film goes for an overblown climax in the last 20 minutes. I suppose he was trying to please the action-friendly crowd, or the studio required him to add in more action. I'm not sure. He just adds in too much gunfire and SWAT teams to make it appear more Hollywood-esquire and unrealistic, and that takes away a bit of the reality and honesty from the first 75% of the film. However, that flaw aside, 90% of what is in this film is superior to most of anything shown in theaters so far this year, with the exception of Chris Nolan's masterful "Inception." It is well worth your time, and it demonstrates Affleck's true talent both as a scribe and director. Now I think it's time for all of us to tell Michael Bay how much he sucks.