(This movie has been out for just a bit over 2 weeks, and I realize I am incredibly late with my review. Sorry. Real life got in the way.)
After his directorial debut in 2007 with Gone Baby Gone Ben Affleck goes behind the camera again with The Town. For those living under a rock the movie tells the story of Doug MacRay (Affleck) and his group of friends/low-rent thieves living in Charlestown, Boston – a town responsible for producing more bank and armored truck robbers than any other place in the United States – and their bank robbery gone awry. Doug’s bestie Jem (Jeremy Renner) decides to change up the game and takes the bank’s assistant manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. Upon her release Doug realizes that he needs to keep tabs on her to make sure that she doesn’t know any information that could get him and the gang caught. Of course she falls for him. He falls for her. The gang robs again. A shoot-out occurs. There is a car chase. The FBI is on their tail. The gang robs again – at Fenway Park. Another shoot-out. And one of the most contrived and cheesy endings I’ve seen in a while.
That makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the movie, which would be incorrect. I enjoyed it. It kept me entertained. There was plenty of suspense. I just expected it to be more than it was. I thought it would live up to the hype. For me, it just didn’t. The following is a list of the things that, in my opinion, worked and the things that didn’t:
The Good
• Ben Affleck The Director – He should think about staying behind the camera more often. His promise as a director is exciting to think about. After this movie I have to think he’s got some pretty nice offers coming his way.
• Jeremy Renner – Simply outstanding. He was the only actor that was consistently good throughout the entire film. I’ve said it numerous times before, but if any award nominations are going to be thrown The Town’s way, you’ve gotta think that Renner figures into that mix for Supporting.
• The Heists – The multiple bank robbery set pieces were handled well, along with some nice effective car chases. (Affleck also made good use of the aerial shots.) There was an underlying tension to every one of those scenes and the consistently brisk pace was used well to pull the viewer on to the next event just before things began to drag.
• James McKittrick – Don’t know that name? He’s the guy who played the cop who looked the other way during the car chase/shoot out. I loved that little scene. It was beautiful and comedic all at the same time. Such an awesome scene with so much truth and meaning underlying it.
• Chris Cooper –I have always maintained that Chris Cooper is allergic to bullshit, so it’s almost always a given that his performance is going to be good. And in The Town it was. He played the “tough-as-nails criminal on death row” dad perfectly. I just can’t figure out why you would cast an actor that is the caliber of Chris Cooper and just woefully under use him?
The Bad
• Ben Affleck The Actor – It was completely narcissistic of him to cast himself in the lead. I imagine him looking at himself in a mirror and saying “I’m going to write this role about the baddest/smartest dude and then I am going to star as him. He jumps over roof tops, all the girls in the movie want him, he is the hero, the villan, and he gets away without a scratch. And oh yeah, he looks like the toughest motherfucker while doing chin-ups for 15 entire seconds in the middle of the film for no real reason other then I want to show off my ripped abs." I felt like Ben was just stroking himself throughout the whole movie. There are plenty of better actors out there (As Renner proves, he stepped all over Affleck in their scenes together). Affleck’s character really doesn’t go though any sort of development either; he’s the same guy he was at the beginning of the movie and remains that way in the end.
• The Meet-Cute – Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that you were an assistant manager at a bank that was held up and you were taken hostage and you knew the men who stole your license did so on purpose, and could come and kill you at any moment. Would you really trust some random guy hanging out at the laundromat if he asked you out for drinks the next night?! Would you really get into this stranger’s car in the dark and let him drive you to the restaurant?
• Blake Lively – She sucks. And she must suck really well too, because for the life of me I can not figure out why Affleck decided to cast her in his movie otherwise. Yep, she’s gorgeous and she's got great boobs and legs. But what else did she bring to the roll? Answer: nothing.
• Song Choice – That horrific song that plays during the first bar scene made me turn to J and say outloud “I can not believe that Ben put Jason fucking Derulo in his movie.” Yes, it was that bad. Took me right out of the scene.
• The Ending – The script was adapted from Chuck Hogan’s Prince of Theives and while I have not read the book I was curious as to how the book handled the ending (because the movie’s ending? It was for shit.). In the original ending Doug gets shot in the neck in the florist’s shop by one of his guys and barely makes it to Claire’s apartment and dies sitting in her chair, holding her hand. FBI Agent Frawley (played by Jon Hamm in the movie) is in the room, too, but lets them have their last moment. Now, THAT is the ending I wanted to see. Not that contrived bullshit where the bad guy gets away with it all and goes on to live happily ever after in Tangerine, Florida waiting for his true-love to show up. I mean there were just so many contrivances’ made to tie up the film with a nice bow that were just over the top ridiculous. Doug calls up Claire and she tips him off not to come meet her (even though he is watching her from across the street and can see the feds in her apartment) hangs up and then walks though the streets, gets on a bus and escapes? What the fuck? No way would the feds be so careless, that they are just going to sit and wait for him to show up. A cop killer? Are you fucking kidding me? His picture would have been up everywhere, every bus station, train station and airport would be locked down with agents on the lookout. Furthermore can you even buy a train ticket without an ID anymore? His ID wasn’t flagged? If Affleck wanted to play out the escape ending, fine. But I find it hard to believe that that was the best he could come up with. There was no suspense; the moment he walks out we know he is going to get away with it all. It’s just seemed like lazy writing to me. The escape should have been half the thrill, and instead of making it one Affleck turned it into a Nicholas Sparks novel complete with Doug standing out on his front porch watching the sun set over the ocean.
Honestly, I did enjoy the film. No, really, I did. Promise. I would recommend it to other people. But if it gets a Best Picture nod? I will weep.
And lastly I just want to point out something that was talked about on the way home from the theater. It has no real relevance to The Town, but it’s something to think about. Ben has made 3 movies now that have Boston as a main character (Good Will Hunting, Gone Baby Gone & The Town), and I keep hearing that it is his way of paying tribute because he really loves his hometown. I submit that Ben in actuality hates Boston. I mean at this point he has made Boston look like the most dangerous, horrible place to live with its crime-ridden streets. The city council is probably calling up Ben and begging him to please massacre another American city.
The Town - 3.5 Stars
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