The Town

Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig, Aaron Stockard, Chuck Hogan (author)
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Length: 2 hours 5 minutes

Fairly new director Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), this time is also co-writing, starring and producing to bring Chuck Hogan’s novel about the true crime of Boston to life. The Town was at both this year’s Venice Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, and stars the fantastic Jeremy Renner, the beautiful Rebecca Hall, and the handsome Jon Hamm. Doug McKay (Affleck) and Chris Coughlin (Renner) are two bank robbers living in Charlestown, a section of Boston. They’ve been best friends since childhood and on their latest robbery, they force bank manager, Claire (Hall) to open a safe, blind her, and leave her on a beach. While traumatized from this event, Claire is interviewed by FBI agent, Adam Frawley (Hamm). Frawley is in charge of finding the robbers and already begins to suspect Doug and James. James convinces Doug to find Claire and warn her about not talking to the FBI, but instead when Doug goes, he ends up talking to her and asking her on a date. As their romantic relationship grows, problems arise when James and Doug are planning their next heist and agent Frawley is on the verge of outing them. For the past decade, Ben Affleck has earned himself an outstanding reputation for being in bad movie after bad movie. For the longest time in my mind, I only ever knew him as the actor who appears in cheesy films, such as Daredevil, Paycheck and let’s not mention Gigli but because I am too young to have remembered his success for the phenomenal film Good Will Hunting. I could barely walk when he and Matt Damon won their Oscars in 1998. When I heard about that movie for the first time, it blew my mind that an actor who’s been in so many terrible films, could have won an Oscar. Now, I understand why and let me tell you, anyone who’s seen The Town will never make fun of him for Gigli again. He had a slight comeback back in 2007, with his directorial debut of Gone Baby Gone, but The Town defines the word “comeback” for Affleck. He unravels a dark intriguing story on screen with a prefect blend of action, romance, and even a bit of comedy. All of these traits that the movie presents lies on top of an incredibly serious undertone. The fact that a film can bring all those emotions out of you within two hours is incredible. Affleck, as a director, incorporates quite a lot of tremendous action that is necessary for the story. I felt on the edge of my seat because of the special effects, the writing, the acting, and even the score. This was refreshing compared to most action flicks you see nowadays that bombard you with special effects. Affleck was clearly fantastic as a writer, director, actor and producer, but he also chose a hell of a cast. British actress Rebecca Hall, best known for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, was captivating as Claire. Her simple performance was incredibly effective because her character was so real that the audience could relate to. It also helped that her and Affleck shared a wonderful chemistry. Jon Hamm just can’t do wrong with his career. While being on Mad Men for 4 seasons, this is his first movie since his big break, which came only a few years ago. He is taking his time with choosing great movies because it is already obvious to the world of what an amazing actor he is. He seems to always be so intense and again it works in The Town. Hamm’s powerful performance was perfect for the exciting theme of this movie. Blake Lively as an old flame of Doug’s was definitely an odd casting choice for the movie, but Lively was surprisingly quite good as Krista, James’ sister. Lively seems to be one of those actors that performs as well as their script commands of them. Maybe I misjudged Lively’s acting ability at first from only seeing her in Gossip Girl, but now I know that she does have talent, especially in a great film. However the most notable, exceptional performance from this movie came from the outstanding Jeremy Renner. Everyone knew after seeing The Hurt Locker, that Renner was a fantastic actor, but now after seeing The Town, I know he is an extraordinary character actor. From the accent to the way he walked, I had Renner pegged down as a stupid, violent Charlestown bank robber. I almost thought I was watching a completely different person on screen from when I saw The Hurt Locker. Renner’s performance was nothing short of magnetic to the audience. He was the cherry on top to this already spectacular film. I almost don’t want Affleck to make another movie because I can’t imagine him topping this one. If you haven’t already, go see The Town.