The Town Review

 There are no spoilers in this review.

PLOT: As he plans his next job, a longtime thief tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down.


THE GOOD: Ben Affleck. Kudos to Ben Affleck for writing, directing, and starring in The Town. Lots of credit deserved on his end. The screenplay is not perfect, but certainly has some good dialogue and keeps the viewer interested. The directing is, one again, not perfect, but Affleck seems to be just as capable behind the camera as he is in front of it. I'm not the biggest fan of his acting-wise, but I think this was one of his best performances.

Acting. The rest of the acting was great, too. I can't think of a single performance I disliked. Rebecca Hall was good as the love interest. Mad Men's Jon Hamm is awesome no matter what he's in. Had my doubts about Jeremy Renner's ability, but he was truly a badass.

Premise. The Town provides for a capturing premise. Ben Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, helps rob a bank and kidnaps the bank manager during the process, who is played by Rebecca Hall. He starts dating her and is constantly having to hide his life of being a thief. The movie is compared a lot to The Departed (it's not nearly as good as it though), but I would throw in mixes of Heat and Public Enemies as well. While I still think Affleck deserves a lot of credit, more should go to Chuck Hogan who wrote the novel for which the film is based on, Prince of Thieves.


THE BAD: Cinematography. I wouldn't say that the camera work in The Town was too bad, but I know that DOP Robert Elswit is so much more capable of producing better work. Elswit has done genius work on every Paul Thomas Anderson movie (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood) as well as other respected movies like Michael Clayton and Syriana. His work on The Town was just average. Meh, boring

Predictable. I had this movie pegged about 1/3 of the way in. Some even claim to have figured it out before even walking into the theatre.


THE END: The Town is currently sitting at a high 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and I feel like it wasn't that good. Oh, it's good alright; one of the best films I've seen so far this year. But we're coming up on Oscar season and I just don't see this movie holding up. It's also not a movie I could have repeat viewings with. Maybe one or two more times, but that's about it. The Town is very much worth seeing in theatres. Check it out.


DISCUSS: What did you think of The Town? Did you like Gone Baby Gone? Did you enjoy the acting in the film? What movies would you compare The Town to? Do you think Affleck's character redeemed himself in the end?