Directed by the man who gave us the stunning Gone Baby Gone (who also takes the lead). Also starring Mad Men’s Jon Hamm, The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, this film plays out like a combination of The Wild Bunch, Good Will Hunting and Heat. And it works incredibly well.
It was becoming too easy to pin Affleck as a second rate actor, in the early 00′s a string of lead roles in second rate thrillers meant the faith and good will (lololol) he had gathered from winning the Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting had faded, he had his chance and blew it. Just another handsome guy cast onto the pile of could have been and should have been superstars. And then in 2007, he surprised everyone. Daredevil was directing? The star of Gigli was directing a thriller? Starring his brother? Pssssssh, the nutter. Straight to DVD I bet. But no. Gone Baby Gone came out and stunned everyone that watched it. In my opinion it was the best film of 2007, a year that included films from Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Brothers and David Fincher. Maybe Affleck could direct after all.
It has taken 3 years to find out whether or not the quality of his debut was a fluke and I feel safe saying that, whilst not quite as good as Gone Baby Gone, this is a very worthy follow up. The film centres around a group of bank robbers from Affleck’s ‘beloved’ Boston, with Ben himself taking the lead role, Renner plays a childhood friend and fellow bank robber whilst Hamm applies his already trademark charm in playing the FBI nemesis of the group.
The film centres on the conflict that arises when after kidnapping the manager of one of banks the group realise that she lives but four blocks from them, Affleck takes responsibility for making sure she isn’t working with the police too much however, he soon falls for her, which is where problems obviously arise. Some have called the premise far-fetched though whilst it does require a bit of a leap to accept, it is a tiny leap, it’s called The Town, the film is about a community of people and so it isn’t too hard to accept the romance and the way it comes to be. It is also a fantastic way to draw out conflict. The gang see Affleck as a risk. If she finds out he was one of the bank robbers it’s over for them and him, if the police find out it’s over for them. There simply isn’t a way that it can work out, but good god do we want it to.
Doug MacRay (Affleck) is one of the good thieves. Someone who wants to turn his back on the trade, who doesn’t want to use too much violence in the robberies, the thinker of the group and because of this he is easy to identify with as he monologues about wanting to escape. Perhaps this bank manager is just the person to give him the strength to overcome his own fears, his best friend’s attachment and his ‘bosses’ threats and escape the town. The character relationships in this are all juggled perfectly with enough time being dedicated to fleshing out each person’s beliefs and how they conflict with others’, so that we care when Affleck tells Renner he is leaving, that we cannot wait to see Afflecks’ reaction when his Florist boss tells him a certain secret I won’t spoil here. It all works perfectly, well, all except for Hamm’s FBI agent.
Hamm’s character is a force to be reckoned with sure, he’s kinda smart, seems pretty capabl and doggedly pursues his target until they are caught. But other than that there is very little to him. No arc, no lesson learnt, nothing unexpected at all. He isn’t the focus of the movie at all, but quite a bit of time is dedicated to him and it would have been nice to see what makes him tick, why he chases these characters so persistently.
THE CHASES! There are a few set pieces in this film which provide enough rawness, enough tension and excitement for 10 summer blockbusters, Affleck’s direction provides many of the thrills, the action sequences are tightly focused even when chaotic, brilliantly shot and written and full of great touches (a character drinks from a discarded coke during his last stand got a few laughs). Why should we care about a car chase? Because of the characters in the car. And the amount of development in this film helps these scenes to no end, I have never clenched as much as I have during the second robbery scene, and never sighed a bigger sigh of relief when they get away.
With action scenes like these, along with strong focus on character and theme, Affleck has crafted an elegaic story about class, friendship and strength of character. An urban western. A Good Will Hunting sequel, one of the best films of the year. The Town is all of these things.
