Movie Review #46 (The Town)

The Town (2010) Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner Directed by Ben Affleck

The problem with raised expectations is that they can hijack your experience, but I couldn’t help it with this film, all of my go to critics praised it. I’m not going to say I was disappointed because it was a very entertaining piece of work from Affleck, however I was hoping for another Oscar contender (like 7.5 or higher on the scale…so few of those so far this year) and The Town is just not good enough to qualify for that kind of praise. That said The Town is a good solid heist film that is easy to watch and especially enjoyable if your fascinated by the Boston accent (which Affleck uses to the full degree saying things like Dungaroos and Arbitrary…great Boston words). I blame only myself for expecting more.

The Town is the story of Doug MacRay a 2^nd generation Irish bank robber in “the town” of Charlestown Mass. After a robbery in which he takes a Bank Manager hostage, he gets a spot of the Moral Shakes and wants to reconsider his life choices (of course he does). Around that same time he actually falls for this Bank Manager (played very well by the lovely Rebecca Hall). This romance doesn’t sit well with the rest of his long time crew, especially the crazy James Coughlin (played by the brilliant Jeremy Renner) who is doubly pissed because he wants Doug to be with his sister (who is played by a very strung out looking and often annoying Blake Lively). Doug tries hard to change his ways and leave it all in the rearview but Fergie Colm (played by a turnipy looking Pete Postlethwaite) uses Doug’s new romance as leverage to convince him to do one more job…any guess where this job takes place?…hmm…Affleck…Boston…um…try Fenway Park…over the top?…yes…enjoyable to watch?…yes it is. The cop who is on the chase for the crew is FBI agent Frawley (played well by Mad Men Vet John Hamm) he has the best line of the film toward the end. The film makes some of the same mistakes as Public Enemies (2009) did, lots of character, look, and feel…but little substance, and the romance is simply unbelievable. All that said it is a really fun movie, and though it isn’t the intelligent fall movie I was hoping for (more like a fun summer heist film) I still highly recommend it…I just hope there is more to come from the fall films.

(The Shawshank Scale 1-10) Don’t Paarrk your Armored Carr in the Harvard Yard if you don’t want it to be jacked! Listen I love Boston and they even mention my actual hometown of Nashua in the film…so I would be thrown to the wolves if I didn’t give it at least a 7.0 on the scale.

Food For Thought: Next up for Affleck is a Terrence Malick directed Untitled Romance co starring Javier Bardem and Rachel McAdams. For Jeremy Renner there is Mission Impossible 4 coming in 2011.