MOVIE OF THE WEEK #3: THE TOWN
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Jon Hamm, Slaine, Owen Burke, Titus Welliver, Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite
WRITER: Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig (screenplay); Chuck Hogan (novel, Prince of Thieves)
DIRECTOR: Ben Affleck
WEB SITE: http://thetownmovie.warnerbros.com/#/home
THE PLOT: The second Boston crime noir in his once-again burgeoning career, The Town stars Ben Affleck (who also directed) as Doug MacRay, a bank/armored truck robber hailing from the neighborhood known as Charlestown. The neighborhood is apparently known for producing nothing but criminals, just like Doug's father (Chris Cooper) before him.
The neighborhood is also home to Jim "Jem" Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), an impulsive, hot-headed and generally ready to pull a trigger partner in crime and the brother of Krista (Blake Lively), Doug's former girlfriend. Rounding out the crew is getaway driver Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan (Boston-based hip-hop artist Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke), who is handy at disabling security systems. That, however, doesn't mean that FBI special agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) isn't breathing down their necks waiting for a chance to take them all down ...
Further complicating matters is the presence of Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). You see, Claire is a manager at the bank branch Doug and his crew just robbed and the same woman Jem took hostage to ensure they would get away unscathed ...
So what's the problem, then, since they got away seemingly scot-free? Rebecca could identify them thanks to Jem's distinguishing features AND the woman Doug may find himself falling for ...
THE TAKE: The Town proves that Affleck's previous directorial effort, 2007's Gone Baby Gone, was no fluke. He clearly has a definite talent for telling a story with compelling visuals, proper pacing and attention to subtle details to help craft an overall cinematic mosaic. The acting, like the film's camera work, is focused with each actor contributing to the overall story.
So why, then, does the film not earn higher marks than this week's other new releases such as Devil and Easy A? Two simple reasons: [1] They are three entirely different films in terms of subject matter and audience and more importantly, [2] Of the three films in question, The Town is the one that feels the least original.
Let me explain.
There are few things we enjoy more as moviegoers is a good heist movie. There's a new one every year it seems and while some (Heat, for example) become iconic, there are plenty of others (Armored and the recently-released Takers just to name a few) that miss the mark. The Town follows a very tried and true line of using many of the familiar staples of the heist/crime movie as it has a guy caught at a life crossroads (Affleck's character), the classic hothead (Renner's character), the woman caught in the middle that helps prompt the main character's life crisis (Hall), the law enforcement official (Hamm's character) that is determined to get his man and refuses to lose his cool when face-to-face with his nemesis and shootouts that go pretty much the way you would expect.
The Town has all of these things and while each is done well, they've also been done - and that's my point. This is no knock against Affleck and company; The Town is a good, solid movie, it's just not bringing anything new to the table (whereas Gone Baby Gone did or at least felt like it - it's been a minute since I've seen it). Maybe it's me and I've just seen too many movies, but the fact they couldn't even come up with a more compelling title than "the town," I'm not too worried about being wrong.
PARTING SHOT: While it's not super original in any way, The Town is compelling enough to make it worth plopping down your hard earned cash to watch Affleck and company attempt to steal some and not feel that they have stolen yours in the process.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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