Accomplished, But Also Slow and Talky

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2011)

"The Town" showcases Ben Affleck's potential as a director, but it also highlights the qualities about his style that have so far prevented that potential from fully blossoming.
Set in the dreariest, gloomiest parts of Boston, much like his directorial debut "Gone, Baby Gone," "The Town" is a moody character study disguised as a heist film. The authentic feel and raw edges Affleck brings to his story go a long way toward masking the fact that it's full of pure movie cliché. A sensitive criminal (played by Affleck himself) becomes conflicted and dreams of starting a new life once he begins to receive the love of a good woman (Rebecca Hall, lovely as always but stuck with a somewhat thankless role). Affleck seems to have gone to the Clint Eastwood school of filmmaking, where everything -- both in the actual physical production and its tone -- must be gray and drab and ponderously "important." It's a slow and talky movie, and I found myself wishing Affleck would just get on with things already. I didn't dislike it, but I did find that my opinion of it began to gradually sink after I'd let the memory of it settle in my mind for a few days after watching it.
Affleck clearly wants to be taken seriously as a Filmmaker with a capital "F," but he needs to remember that the best filmmakers manage to make movies that are both important and entertaining.
Grade: B