Rating:  

Legendary Pictures, GK Films, Thunder Road Film, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Written by: Peter Craig, Ben Affleck, and Aaron Stackford, adapted from the novel, “Prince of Thieves” by Chuck Hogan.

Let’s just get this out in the open right from the beginning. The bashing of Ben Affleck simply cannot continue if Affleck is going to turn out films such as 2007′s “Gone Baby Gone” or his latest directorial effort, “The Town.” As an actor, Affleck has made some notable missteps but he is a strong 2-for-2 as a director. “The Town” is gripping and intense, tightly coiled and dripping with a measured anxiety that Affleck controls with tremendous aplomb.

Based principally upon Chuck Hogan’s “Prince of Thieves”, “The Town” opens with a title card informing us that the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts is home to more bank robbers per capita than any other location in the U.S. Immediately, we are in the midst of an imminent robbery with four friends ready to strike. Wearing freakish skeletal masks, they seize the opportunity to overwhelm an armored car worker and blast into a bank prior to its opening. They are clearly experienced and deliberate and the job largely goes without a hitch. That is until one of the robbers, Jem (Jeremy Renner), assaults the bank manager, and decides on the fly to abduct the female assistant manager and take her hostage. Jem’s decisions are bold and unplanned and places him at odds with the group’s leader, Doug MacRay (Affleck). With the robbery a financial success, the female hostage, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), is blindfolded and dropped off at a beach, barefoot, and told to walk until she hits water. As an additional spur-of-the-moment decision, Jem lifts Claire’s driver’s license and later, after a heated exchange post-robbery, Doug agrees to find a way to return it to her.

Affleck is masterful is orchestrating the opening heist, slotting in silent surveillance video in and amongst the chaotic sequences inside the bank. The film’s strong open gives way to allowing us to learn more about MacRay and Jem, Jem’s sister and MacRay’s on-again/off-again love interest, Krista (Blake Lively from “Gossip Girl”), and Claire Keesey. During the heist, MacRay was oddly affected by his reaction to Claire and begins to track her down, eventually leading to a “chance” encounter in the local laundromat. MacRay is tired, considering a complete change in his way of life, and also uncontrollably smitten with Claire. Claire warms to MacRay and relies on him for strength following her ordeal and soon, unwittingly, falls for one of the men responsible for her being held against her will. When skilled FBI agent, Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) enters into the proceedings and systemically tracks down the robbers, the world that MacRay desperately wants to leave behind, may be unshakable for him.

“The Town” is quite compelling theater, even with the acknowledgment that its premise is not all that original. Affleck and his screenwriters have changed significant portions of the book, much for the better, and the film moves along in a very brisk manner. Significant to the film is the ability that Affleck is able to place us right in the gritty and suppressed world of Charlestown. As we move in and around the landscape of Charlestown, and meet those in and around the community, we can feel the despair of its inhabitants in various different incarnations.

Jeremy Renner is tremendous as Jem. Building on his Oscar-nominated performance in “The Hurt Locker”, Renner’s Jem is on the stove and boiling, on the verge of whistling at any moment. His cocky and confident exterior keeps MacRay wondering, but Renner evokes emptiness and despair within. Renner takes the stock “bad boy” character and makes it unique and fresh again. While Renner stands out, the rest of the ensemble are extremely strong as well. Rebecca Hall’s Claire is vulnerable and shaken and all together misguided in her rush into her relationship with MacRay.

And though Affleck and Hall are good on screen together, their love story may require the film’s largest leap of faith. However, when things take a dramatic turn for the pair, Hall shines in confronting immediate truths with a desperate MacRay. Additional supporting turns from Blake Lively, Chris Cooper as MacRay’s incarcerated father, and veteran actor Pete Postlethwaite’s nasty and vile turn as Fergie, a flower-shop owner with his claws in the flesh of the bank robbing community, are equally strong and memorable. Perhaps the weakest link in the film is Jon Hamm’s turn as Frawley. Hamm’s performance is fine, far from terrible, but also written too formulaic for my taste. Hamm is constricted in being able to truly make his FBI agent emerge as fresh and distinctive as his acting counterparts can do with their characters.

The film’s construct and source material is a series of trap doors for cliches and plot points which come frequently and often in the heist film. The bank robber seeking a new life, the idea of “one last job”, the disagreements and in-fighting amongst the team of robbers, the FBI agent always one step behind the criminals, and even the necessary investigation scenes themselves are all on display here. All of this may seem tired, shopworn, and as indicated completely stale. However, the tweaks to the Chuck Hogan novel are smart, well-tuned, and allow us to accept these contrivances as fresh and interesting. The film is just so well executed and acted that you’re drawn in for 2 hours to this community, these characters, and the anxiety hanging around every one of them.

That the film ends with a whimper is perhaps its largest discretion and may undo much of the goodwill the film earns with viewers. However, what Ben Affleck understands is that for all of the accomplishments he can achieve on a technical level through set design, cinematography, and score, the mood and intensity a film like this needs emanates from its actors. And “The Town” is strong and rewarding in every last one of those respects.

Should I See It?

YES

Ben Affleck gets it. With “Gone Baby Gone” and now, “The Town”, he is an accomplished and emerging director to pay attention to. Also, he’s no hack with writing or adapting a screenplay and delivers a strong lead performance. I mean, if you cannot respect him after this…

Jeremy Renner’s seething and ticking timebomb performance is some of the year’s best work.

We feel a part of the happenings here, get a sense of what it feels like to live in these character’s lives, and for much of the film, are engrossed in a brisk and compelling melodrama.

NO

If you are not at all interested in the bank robber/heist genre, think more “The Departed” then “Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, or Thirteen”, this will not be anything you wish to sit through.

The disappointing final moments may sour the viewer on the thrills the film delivers on for much of its running time, but some may balk at the love story between Claire and MacRay. If you tell me it feels forced and disingenuous, I would see your point.

Lovers of the book while be rather gobsmacked at all of the changes, especially the revised end.

Far from the most graphic of the genre, the film still has some moments of strong and sudden violence.