Ben Affleck is Our New Respectable Director

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2011)

If you think Ben Affleck is a great Actor, you should take a better look at "Good Will Hunting" (1997). If you think Ben is a great Screenwriter, you should see "The Town" more thoroughly. In thiz last movie, he also becomes the Director. For me, Ben is the third talented Actor-Director in the past decade, beside Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson. Thiz is his second long feature after respectable "Gone Baby Gone" in 2007. The town is Charleston Boston, where everybody knows everybody. It revolves around the bank thief Doug (Ben Affleck), his partner in crime James (Jeremy Renner), along with their former hostage Claire (Rebecca Hall) who will be having a love affair with Doug later, and a FBI agent Adam (John Hamm). All of them get tangled into a cat and mouse situation. First half of the movie, it introduces the characters and situations. Then the second half, it flips over nicely by explaining the motives behind those characters. I think Ben is success with his directing method because he does not exaggerate things up, he just let every thing flows naturally. Yes, he plays save here. The factors that empower thiz movie are simply a good script and consistent Actor performances. Ben himself shows a very calm and convincing performance. As well Rebecca Hall as his love interest, Hall delivers a precise fragile and lovable character. Jeremy Renner is deathly awesome with his street gang attitude. Most of the supporting Cast members deserve honorable mentions as well. Blake Lively as Doug's ex-girlfriend and single parent, I have never seen Lively blends into thiz kind of troubled character. Chris Cooper as Doug's behind-the-cell father, it takes only one scene but it's definitely memorable. And the last but not least for me, it's Pete Postlethwaite as Fergie the flower man who is the brain behind the crime. There is strange feeling by only hearing his intimidate and unique accent. In the end, we realize that the town could change people, and the people are just victims. It's harder to change the system than the person itself. But to change the system, it should start by changing the person as well. And thiz will be a never-ending circle. But finally, it's totally out of our control. But we can control something for sure, for me it's waiting for another Ben Afflecks's next project. I will see him again, on thiz side or the other.
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