Review: The Town

  
     In the world of cinema, the 2000's were to the city of Boston what the 1970's were to New York City. In the 70's, you had a slew of famous films by great directors set in in the Big Apple. "The French Connection" by William Friedkin, "Taxi Driver" by Martin Scorsese, and "Manhattan" by Woody Allen are just a few examples of films where the city itself is practically a character of the movie. In this last decade though (a decade in which the New England Patriots dominated the NFL and the Boston Red Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino"), Boston has taken the reigns from New York City as the auteur's favorite playground. From films such as Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Scorsese's "The Departed" (as well as his last film "Shutter Island" that was set in a mental institution outside of Boston), to films like "Edge of Darkness" and "Gone Baby Gone" (another Ben Affleck film), this has been a golden age of cinema for Boston. It arguably all started though in the last decade, when two unknown actors wrote a screenplay called "Good Will Hunting". The film was a critical and box-office success and made its two writers and stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, household names and industry leaders. Thirteen years later, even with all his fame and fortune, it is clear that at least one of the Boston Duo has not forgotten his hometown as his second directorial effort "The Town" uses Boston as its backdrop and continues the Hollywood's recent obsession with all things Boston.

     "The Town" though is not a pure creation of Hollywood. Like many of the other films set in Boston, it's based on a book ("Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan), but unfortunately for the film, the presence of a literary source feels totally absent as the film has everything but a "made in Hollywood" stamp on its bottom (maybe on the DVD).

     The film tells the story of four bank robbers (two of which are there simply to reach the numerical minimum of four), who live in a section of Boston called Charlestown, which apparently is the robbery capital of America. The film opens with a bank robbery near Harvard, where things get a little complicated when Jeremy Renner (one of the four robbers) takes a female bank manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage. They let her go, but Renner gets nervous about what she might say to the FBI, and insists that someone follow her. Not wanting Renner's violent tendencies to put the group in a worse situation, Ben Affleck agrees to be the one to track her. After an encounter in a laundry mat though, the two quickly fall in love and begin to date. As I'm sure you can imagine, this complicates the situation even further, as the FBI relentlessly dogs the group at every turn. In true Boston fashion, the finale of the film takes place at Fenway Park, but so as not to spoil the film for anyone who has yet to see it, I will skip the details of the ending.

   
     As I hinted at before, "The Town" is a film that draws totally within the lines and takes no chances. It deals in broad dramatic strokes that appear on all drama/action films checklists, without every delving deeper into the more interesting aspects of the film. The whole love story between Hall and Affleck adds nothing to the film other than to meet the requirement of having a male and female lead. The plot device of a male lead keeping a dark secret from his female interest (and the obligatory scene of devastation when the secret is revealed even though the male lead constantly hints at the dark secret), is a very common technique these days that is wearing out its welcome. The theme of wanting to get out of bad area, but be pulled back in by friends and family is a cliche that has been stretched a little thin at this point too.

     Even with the use of heavy dramatic strokes, had their been an interesting approach to these themes, the film could have been salvaged, but nothing in actor/writer/director Ben Affleck's take on the story is particularly interesting. There is nothing in the direction that is bad, but their is simply nothing exceptional about it (in either direction). There are a few moments here and there from a better movie, but these scenes are all too brief and are dropped quickly to get back to the story at hand.

   
     All the actors do a decent job, with no glaring weaknesses in the cast (although Jon Hamm's tough guy act as the FBI agent was annoying at times). Jeremy Renner, coming off his Oscar nominated performance in "The Hurt Locker", gives a slightly above-average performance and Chris Cooper does a great job in his one scene as Affleck's father (one of the film's best scenes), but the rest of the cast does nothing to stand out. The film's weaknesses though are not due to its actors (that blame goes to the writers and director), but they don't save the film either.

     I have been a huge fan of this recent rise of Bostonian movies. "The Departed" was my favorite film of the last decade, and "Mystic River" is my favorite Eastwood film, so I went into this film with a lot of hope. Unfortunately though, all that was there was a typical Hollywood action film with some dramatic aspirations. It is not a terrible film, and if you find it while browsing at your local Blockbusters, you could sure do a lot worse than this film so it might be worth a rent, but it does not meet some of the loftier praise it has received.


Rating: 6/10

Christopher Lominac