Review: The Town

This is a cops-and-robbers tale set in the Boston suburb of Charlestown, said to have been the breeding ground of more robbers than any other part of the United States. Ben Affleck is one such crim, leader of a gang that includes his best friend Jeremy Renner, who is reckless and volatile, whilst Affleck is cautious and even-tempered. Their latest gig sees them kidnap Rebecca Hall, a bank employee. They subsequently let the woman go unharmed but nonetheless Affleck begins to tail her so as to make sure she doesn’t communicate with the authorities, principally dogged FBI agent Jon Hamm, who is pressing down hard on her to remember anything she can about her temporary captors (who were all wearing masks at the time). Unfortunately, the more Affleck follows Hall, the more interested and attracted to her he becomes, and this interest might just be their downfall, especially considering how close by she lives. Pete Postlethwaite plays the robbers intelligence man, who has a day job as a florist. Chris Cooper has a small role as Affleck’s incarcerated father, whilst Blake Lively plays Renner’s trashy sister, a single mum whom Affleck sometimes messes around with (and who doesn’t like hearing that he’s taken an interest in someone else).

I was a big admirer of Ben Affleck’s first directorial effort, “Gone Baby Gone”, which was a well-directed, button-pushing crime-drama based on strong material. In his second effort behind the lens, Affleck does not quite have the same quality material to work with. In fact, this 2010 crime caper is pretty routine stuff, never really offering up anything memorable or original, outside of some interesting real-life quotes about Charlestown’s claims to fame.

There’s nothing wrong with Affleck’s direction, and some of the performances here are outstanding, but you’ve seen all of this before, I’m afraid, aside from maybe the Boston flavour. Affleck is fine in the lead role, but even better are a perfectly cast Renner, charismatic Hall (whom the camera just wants to make love to at every opportunity), and a scene-stealing Pete Postlethwaite. The latter gives one of the best and scariest performances of his career as a deceptively vicious man. Sadly, it was also one of the veteran character actor’s last. Less effective are two TV actors; a seriously unconvincing Lively (“Gossip Girl”) and quite colourless Hamm (“Mad Men”). The former, adopting Julia Roberts’ ‘push-up bra’ method of tarting it up on screen is never credible, from her very first second on screen, and is a constant distraction. Lively just doesn’t have the range, and the role would’ve been better off in the hands of a more seasoned player of trashy parts. Hamm is far too heavy-handed (dare I say hammy? Get it?) and yet rather wooden at the same time. I’d suggest that is an indication of the role being scripted as heavy-handed, perhaps. Hamm has bonafide leading man looks (kind of Cary Grant-ish, really), but in my opinion, he has merely small screen acting chops and charisma. Not a bad thing mind you, Susan Lucci and Melissa Gilbert have made a nice comfy home on TV. Yeah, that was a bit of a cheap shot, so sue me.

Credibility is a big issue in the film, not just with the miscast Lively, but the script too. Hall’s character, shell-shocked or not, spends more than enough time with Affleck during and after the robbery to pick his voice, especially considering she says at one point that she’d recognise his voice. It’s a stupid line that everyone involved probably mistook for a clever one, and the issue undermines the film a fair bit. This in spite of the fine work that Affleck, and especially Hall (whose American accent is spot-on to my Aussie ears) do to try and bridge that credibility gap as much as possible. Renner, as I said earlier is terrific. In fact, he’s the film’s true spark of energy...and unfortunately isn’t in the film enough (like Postlethwaite for that matter). The film really needed more of his reckless, violent character, sort of this film’s John Cazale (he’s much smarter than Cazale’s character was in the classic “Dog Day Afternoon”). Yet, the funny thing is, that even his character is a cliché, sort of the predictable ‘unpredictable’ character that you just know is going to screw things up, yet you don’t quite know how or when. Still, Renner makes the character come alive, more than a cliché.

Overall, this just doesn’t go anywhere you don’t expect, and offers little you can’t get elsewhere. In fact, one of the film’s issues is that Mr. Affleck treats this material like it’s “Heat” (apparently Affleck’s original cut was about 4 hours long!), when it really could’ve been a fun flick in the “Point Break” mould. Even the action in the big robbery scene, whilst cool, reminded me of the shoot-out on LA streets in “Heat”. I will say, though, that Affleck and cinematographer Robert Elswit (“The River Wild”, “Tomorrow Never Dies”, “Magnolia”, “Gigli”) deserve credit for judicious use of handheld cameras, and rather effective, especially in the robbery and chase scenes. It’s pretty slick-looking at times, even if it’s a bit indulgent on blue-green/amber filters. Affleck also does a few nifty bits of cross-cutting without being pretentious or annoying about it.

The material just isn’t up to the standards that the actors demand, in fact, it appears that the script is really only interested in the characters played by Hall and Affleck. A shame, because with a few new wrinkles to the clichéd caper genre, this might’ve been a winner. Instead it’s a disappointment and a letdown from Affleck’s previous directorial effort. “Gone Baby Gone”, if nothing else gave people something to talk about for hours afterwards, with its moral complexities and divisive ending. “The Town” on, the other hand, leaves you with merely a feeling of semi-satisfaction at best. Scripted by Affleck, Peter Craig, and Aaron Stockard (a Cambridge pal of Affleck’s who worked on “Gone Baby Gone”) from a novel by Chuck Hogan, Affleck would do better next time with the entertaining truth-is-stranger-than-fiction “Argo”.

Rating: C+