Clichéd tale that brims with heart and authenticity

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2011)

Charlestown, Boston - a gang of bank robbers are preparing a heist. They break into the bank, rough up some of the employees, and gain access to the main vault. They escape, taking bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) with them. They eventually release her, telling her to walk until she feels the sea at her feet. It seems they have gotten away with it, but gang member Jem (Jeremy Renner) is restless and wants her taken care of after discovering she is from the same neighbourhood and may be able to identify one of them. Doug (Ben Affleck) takes responsibility, and he starts following Claire. They eventually start talking, and Doug finds himself falling for her. With FBI agent Frawley (John Hamm) closing in on the gang, Doug becomes disenchanted with the life of crime and longs to give it up, but will Jem, and more dangerously, will notorious big boss Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite), let him?
There's been a lot of interest in Boston of late. Most have focused on the element of crime and the way it seemingly flourishes there. The most popular are Martin Scorsese's The Departed (2006) and Ben Affleck's debut film as director, Gone Baby Gone (2007). Affleck originated from Boston himself, and although he depicts it as a dangerous place to live and a place that bleeds criminals, he clearly has a love for the place. The Town benefits from this fact, as although its storyline is seeped in cliché, the film has a genuine authenticity to it that gives the film heart, and a real feeling of place.
Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is the main source where The Town takes its influence from. Without capturing the same neon beauty of Mann's crime masterpiece, The Town films its bank robbery set pieces with the same attention to detail, and exciting, breathless shoot-outs. It also has it's fair share of impressive performances - Renner, as the films token loose-canon, brims with subtle menace and eagerness to harm. He is very good, and fully deserves the attention he got from The Hurt Locker (2008), and the two Academy Award nominations that came from that and this. Jon Hamm looks like the film star he could become once he's done with Mad Men with a performance of fierce determination and arrogance, as his FBI man looks to catch these career criminals before they rob any more banks.
But with the good, comes the cliché. The central romance between Affleck and Hall is believable - they're two lost souls looking for someone to help them escape the existence that they currently hate - but you can't help thinking how gullible Hall is and how stupid Affleck is for getting involved with someone who could put him in jail for many years. Yet while the movie is ultimately formulaic, and contains character archetypes seen many times before, it remains frequently riveting. Complete with mumbling, Boston-accented dialogue, and real locations, the film's authenticity lifts the film out of the good and into the very good. Affleck may be a better director than actor, but he gives a strong performance here. If he does ever decide to go back into acting full time, let's hope he doesn't forget about directing, and hopefully he's sacked the agent that brought him the likes of Pearl Harbor (2001), Bounce (2000) and, of course, Gigli (2003).
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