A superbly made drama.

Rating: 9/10 (21 October 2010)

With sophomore effort The Town, Ben Affleck has well and truly confirmed that he's a directorial force to be reckoned with and that his astounding Gone Baby Gone was no fluke. He handles the story, location and characters – all of which are unglamorous – with a deep affection and sincerity. These issues, places and people clearly mean something to him and consequently, through his earnestness in portraying them stripped of any falsities, they mean something to us. We shouldn't care about these bottom-feeding members of a criminally abundant community but Affleck – who also wrote the screenplay – sees to it that we look past face value, at least for a little while, to ascertain whether our initial judgments were in fact correct.
With the help of DP Robert Elswit – who gives the streets of Boston a dim, shadowy look – Affleck generates an ideal atmosphere for his characters to inhabit. His shots allow as much of the city in the frame as possible to emphasise the world, that is rife with potential, passing these people by. Contrastingly the action scenes are filmed with an immediate and claustrophobic feel primarily from the robbers' point-of-view, underlining the urgency of the situation they find themselves in and the lack of options they have once the first bullet is fired. With three heart pounding, brilliantly staged set-pieces – two that bookend the film and one at the halfway point – Affleck leaves no doubt that he can do tense action when required.
To round out his involvement, Affleck also takes on the lead role of Doug MacRay, a man who desperately wants to ameliorate his life but isn't sure how to go about it. He turns in a career-best performance that, along with his impressive work in last year's State of Play, may just be the birth of a comeback he's long needed. Elsewhere, a myriad of on-the-cusp-of-A-list-stardom actors put the icing on the cake. Academy award nominee Renner (The Hurt Locker) is both scary and sad as the quietly explosive Jem, British actress Hall (The Prestige) invests her distressed bank manager with a touching vulnerability, Gossip Girl Lively excels in her first serious acting gig as Doug's drug-addicted former flame and Mad Men's Hamm announces his arrival to the big screen with an impactful turn as the uncompromising G-man.
A superbly made, gritty drama that stamps Affleck as a director to watch in the future.
4.5 out of 5 (1 - Rubbish, 2 - Ordinary, 3 - Good, 4 - Excellent, 5 - Classic)