Nice Crime Picture

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2011)

Town, The (2010)
*** (out of 4)
Affleck's second stint as director is a well-made but somewhat flawed crime picture set in Charlestown, MA, which we're told has the highest amount of robberies. Affleck plays Doug MacRay, the leader of a group of thieves who must follow the bank manager (Rebecca Hall) who they just previously robbed. MacRay must find out how she's handling the robbery in the aftermath and soon the two begin to fall in love, although she doesn't know who he is. This here sets forward a wide range of events, which aren't going to sit well with MacRay's crew, the FBI agent (Jon Hamm) following them or the crime boss (Pete Postlethwaite) who oversees everything. THE TOWN isn't nearly as effective as Affleck's previous film GONE BABY GONE and perhaps that's because this was released by a major studio as a blockbuster film. Whenever you release something with a higher budget then you must try and give a large group of people what they wanted. I won't spoil anything in GONE BABY GONE but thing would never have played out like they did had the budget been double and the studio was trying to push a blockbuster. THE TOWN is a very effective movie and it appears Affleck and crew want to really dig deep into families that continue in crime but in the end it starts to pull some punches and we're left with a good looking but entertaining crime picture. The ending has thousands of rounds of ammunition fired, several people killed and of course a lot of other action. I just couldn't help but feel that this was against everything that had led up to this point because there are several characters and subplots that briefly get mentioned and then are forgotten about. This includes a scene where Affleck goes to see his father (Christ Cooper) in prison. There's stuff with Affleck and his best friend and partner in crime (Jeremy Renner), which seems to have a lot of stuff that goes unexplored. Perhaps the longer Director's Cut will contain some more of this stuff. With that said, this picture looks extremely good as the action is held together very well by Affleck and he turns in a strong performance as well. Hall and Hamm are also very impressive in their roles and it's always great seeing Cooper and Postlethwaite even when they don't appear for very long. Renner easily steals the film as the rather cracked out and overly violent partner. Anyone familiar with crime pictures are going to find a lot of the material here familiar. I think what makes the film stand apart are the brief examples of it trying to connect the violence being passed down from father to son. Again, hopefully more of this is explored in the longer cut of the film but this theatrical cut is still worthy of being watched even if it doesn't reach perfection.