Heist or romance?

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2010)

Nobody says that a heist story cannot have romance, or romances cannot have heist as a backdrop. It's just that this one is split right in the middle. Here's how the simple plot shapes up.
The venue is Charlestown (in Boston) with its motif of a monument showing up in about a hundred times throughout the movie (well, a slight exaggeration). Doug (Ben Affleck) is a second generation bank robber working with a close-as-own-brother buddy Jim (Jeremy Renner) plus a couple of other goon, with their loot laundered by local underworld boss Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) while his own father (Chris Cooper) is serving jail terms.
During one particular job, the grab a hostage into the getaway truck just in case, but drop her off after they have shaken off police pursuit. Despite the normal trauma, Claire (Rebecca Hall) would have gotten back to a normal life but for the fact that she lives right in the neighbourhood, hence a sufficiently significant risk for the gang to have Doug befriend her at a "chance meeting" to see if there is any danger that she 'might recognize one of them (despite their masks and her blindfold). Well, she doesn't, but what else but a romance developing between the protagonists? This is the essence of the plot which culminates, quite predictably, into Doug wanting him out and Fergie wanting him to stay on, threatening to hurt Claire who, in the meantime, finally finds out that her new-found lover is also her one-time abductor. Equally predictable is the one-last-job climax.
If you have watched enough of this genre, you can probably easily devise three endings. One, a little bit politically unwise, the protagonist make up and get away with the loot. Two, he is caught but with a reasonably lenient term for her to wait for him to get out. Three, he dies. Will it be one of the above or a different one? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.' Ben Affleck's second time in the director's chair allows him to prove his worth. At the helm, he has everything well under control and produces a movie that is exciting and interesting. While some critics don't like this, I don't mind at all the almost equal split between romance and heist. Why not? There nothing inconsistent or conflicting between the two elements in this well paced and capably edited movie. Maybe if I were to find faults, it is out of the realm of credibility that a professionally hardened criminal like Doug can be so NICE. But when was the last time you saw a movie that is truly realistic?
The cast is better than capable. Rebecca Hall is a very DIFFICULT role, ironically because it's so ORDINARY. That actually reminds me of Minner Driver's role in "Owning Mahowny" (2003). In addition to being a very ordinary character that doesn't really give the actor anything to sink her teeth into they are both in love with a criminal. Both Hall and Driver have demonstrated their exceptional acting ability. Easier by comparison is Blake Lively's (who made a good impression playing teenager Pippa Lee in "The private lives of Pippa Lee" (2009)) role as Jim's sister Krista, and also Doug's lover. She has some wailing and screaming scenes which she does quite well. As temperamental Jim, Jeremy Renner who made a name for himself in "Hurt Locker" last year shows that he really can act. Chris Cooper appears in only a brief, jail visiting scene but if anybody can make an impression under such circumstances, it's Cooper. And those who have watched Postlethwaite knows that HE can make an impressive simply by his looks. On the law enforcement side, you have two reliable veterans Jon Hamm and Titus Welliver.
Finally, while there is not a lot of humour, they do try occasionally. In talking about keep a close eye on the suspects, one or the law enforces quips, "You'll get 24 hour surveillance right away if one of them converts to Islam".