Sure, why not?

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2011)

Yesterday, I saw the South Korean crime film "The Chaser." I spent 2 hours staring pale-faced at the screen. After it ended, I stood up with my head in my hands, drew a ragged breath and stumbled out into the hallway.
"The Town" won't have that effect on you. The standard Hollywood grammar signals you from behind every frame, so even as cars slam into each other and crates of bullets sink into brick and metal, none of the russle and tussle on screen catches you particularly off guard. The people you expect to live - live, the people you expect to die get offed in genre-appropriate ways. The character that was going to hang it all up gets pulled into "one last job," the feds are tipped off by the person you expect to cave under questioning, and so on.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with a formula movie done well, and Affleck delivers. The movie is well-shot, well-written, well-directed and well-acted, with individual nods to everyone's new favorite trigger-finger Jeremy Renner, and Pete Postlethwaite, reduced in body, who makes up for the lost volume with concentrated Kobayashi malevolence. This was Postlethwaite's last film credit to see release before his death, and he plays it like Slayer's farewell concert.
Bostonites would be in a better position to comment on its authenticity, but the movie does give a good sense of location and flavor. Between "Mystic River," "The Departed" and now this offering, Boston has been working up a somewhat gritty reputation in the movies, though Detroit and Baltimore are laughing and shaking their heads.
All told, this is a perfectly fine formula caper movie with an almost-authentic blue collar burnish. You could do worse on a snow day.