Movie Reviews of The Town
- I found it amusing that posters and trailers for The Town, Ben Affleck’s mesmerizing tale of bank-robbing Boston townies, conspicuously avoid mentioning its director by name. No doubt wary of moviegoers' collective antipathy toward Affleck’s acting work, they instead use the label “from the director of Gone Baby Gone” to indicate the film’s authorship. Nor, for that matter, is Affleck’s name to be found anywhere among the The Town’s opening titles, a collection of quotes touting the working-class Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, the film’s main setting, as America’s premier breeding ground of bank and armored car thieves. Only at the end of the film, in the first frame of the closing credits, is “Directed by Ben Affleck” deemed safe to display. This is what Jersey Girl has wrought.
- THE TOWN REVIEW
Ben Affleck confirms his directing skills with this sharply made thriller, which carefully maintains a human connection with its characters. It's an astutely observed story, finely told by both cast and crew.
The Charlestown neighbourhood in Boston is a notorious home for bank robbers, and Doug (Affleck) leads fiendishly efficient heists with his brother-like pal Jem (Renner), driver Albert (Slaine) and techie Des (Burke). But Jem's trigger-happy temper almost undoes the last job when he briefly takes bank manager Claire (Hall) hostage. To make sure she's not going to turn them in to tenacious FBI Agent Frawley (Hamm), Doug gets to know her. And of course falls in love, finally seeing a way out of this dodgy life.
Based on a novel by Chuck Hogan, the plot may be similar to Michael Mann's Heat but the film is much more intimate, focussing so tightly on the relationships between the characters that action scenes feel almost like distractions. But the two big set pieces (a gritty car chase and a desperate gun battle) are both extremely well-staged, and will keep genre fans happy. Demanding viewers will enjoy the jagged interaction even more.
Meanwhile, Affleck delivers a magnetic central performance as a man trying to break the generational pull of crime that saw his father (Cooper in a scene-chewing cameo) end up behind bars. But breaking free of the local mob boss (Postlethwaite) or his needy ex-girlfriend (Lively) isn't easy. And Affleck's scenes with both Hall and Renner give the film a kick of bracingly honest emotion. While Hamm gets the chance to cut loose, grabbing the big screen with real intensity.
On the other hand, the dialog often feels overwrought as everyone tells stories about their own life experiences. This is great for the actors, and it adds texture to each character, but it locks much of the film in conversations rather than narrative motion. It also perhaps leaves us with characters who aren't as shaded as they seem. But the performances more than make up with this, and the raw relationships make the film thoroughly engaging, putting us in the shoes of these people as they make moral decisions that go against their natures.
- The Town:
Thought it was a great movie, it captured Boston well. Ben Affleck acting was very good, considering he had to play someone from his hometown. Not as easy as you think. Also this was Affleck's first time directing a blockbuster movie.The movies is about Bank robbers it is kind of like they took the movie "Heat" and put it in Boston. Plenty of action, plenty of tense scenes. Basic plot of the movie is Affleck's character Doug becomes involved with a witness to one of their robberies.It's your typical criminal movie where they are going to do one last score then get out. I would give it 8/10.
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