Suspenseful and Exciting

Rating: 9/10 (17 January 2011)

Ben Affleck directs his second film after Gone Baby Gone. The Town is a thriller surrounding a group of robbers, a bank teller, and the FBI agent out to capture the bank robbers. At a laundromat following the most recent bank robbery, Affleck's character falls in love with the employee who they took hostage, played by Rebecca Hall. His accomplice, played by Jeremy Renner, immediately lashes out at him. With his accomplices, former girlfriend (played by Blake Lively), and his disguised-as-florist boss all confronting him, he must make the decision to either leave with Hall or continue his life of crime. The first hour of this film is stunning and phenomenal. The characters pull you into their minds, and you feel as if you are one of the characters in each scene. Every member of the cast delivers a solid-to-exceptional performance. Affleck, Hall, Renner, and Lively are particularly breathtaking, but it's the third of the quartet who deserves an Oscar nomination. Renner infuses the viewer with fear, pity, and so many other emotions. However, the second half of the film feels less authentic. The plausibility of the film takes somewhat of a nose dive, with the story struggling to deliver more character nuances and plot development. As a result, the ending underwhelms especially in comparison to the rest of the film. For what it's worth, The Town is one of the best films of the year and the best thriller of 2010.