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THE TOWN begins with what appears to be a voiceover in which our protagonist is talking about the characters and situations that will be unfolding during the next two hours. This didn't surprise me because Ben Affleck's last directorial effort (GONE BABY GONE) began similarly with a sublime, observant voiceover from its lead character. The shock comes when we realize that what we're actually hearing is Doug (Affleck, here doing double duty as actor/director) imparting instructions to his partners on how to go about the bank heist that they're about to perform. It's a wonderfully jarring introduction to what is a generally intense and satisfying action drama.
Doug and his team enter the bank wearing masks and they're soon selecting one of the employees to help them open the safe. Turns out it's Claire (Rebecca Hall) who may seem pretty nervous, but she doesn't lose her composure for a second. Due to complications with the police approaching, the guys are forced to take Claire with them when they leave the bank, since they may need to use her as a hostage. As it turns out, they don't need to go that far, so they simply drop Claire off at a random location. They soon discover that Claire lives closer to them than they thought, in the town of Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she's considered a "yuppie" (since she's not actually from there). Paranoid about Claire recognizing them, the guys want to surveil her, but soon Doug starts developing a relationship with Claire that goes way beyond surveillance.
Like GONE BABY GONE, this film is scrupulously raw and naturalistic, with some great cinematography of the city in which it's set. On a personal level, I felt a bit nostalgic about some of the aerial Boston shots, since it was only 2 years ago that I finished my college career there. Of course, though, the fierce, seedy life depicted in THE TOWN seems like something out of an entirely different world than the one I lived in while I was there.
There are several brilliant moments in THE TOWN which make me understand the fact that some critics have drawn comparisons to Martin Scorsese's work. The paranoia is incredibly palpable during a scene in which everything hinges on whether a person will turn his head in a certain direction, thus causing another person to see the tattoo he has on the back of his neck. Later, there's an ironic, uproariously funny moment in which the masked team of robbers stop in their tracks upon seeing a cop who wasn't really looking for them (or for any trouble, for that matter). The moment is placed perfectly because it comes right after what is probably the film's most intense shoot-out/chase sequence and serves as perfect comic relief.
GONE BABY GONE was a fantastic film, #4 on my top 10 list for 2007. Of course, much of its greatness was due to the ingenious moral dilemma that it presents to us in its final half hour. It's too bad that THE TOWN doesn't really offer us something along those lines. Action lovers will be satisfied with the film's final act, but for those of us who want more than that, there's a feeling that the film loses some of its complexity during its climax. We get an unnecessarily long shoot-out sequence that is also rather predictable. The film's final seconds are what I would call too pretty, too beautiful... that may sound good, but it certainly doesn't fit what had thus far been a particularly dark and raw motion picture. In fact, if any moral considerations come into play towards the end of THE TOWN, it's one that a lot of people may find reprehensible (does the film believe that if you steal millions of dollars from innocent people but then use it for a charitable cause you've redeemed yourself?). One of the other issues I have with the film is that it adheres too much to the convention of "the main character is technically a villain, but he's trying to get out of that lifestyle, he's trying to be a better person" - films seem to believe that audiences NEED that in order to sympathize with its lead. How about giving us a thoroughly flawed lead character, a total fuck-up? Maybe a lot of people wouldn't go for it, but I certainly would.
While THE TOWN doesn't deserve the accolades that I gave GONE BABY GONE, this is still an overall solid cinematic experience. Ben Affleck is as good a director as he is an actor who seems to display agony effortlessly. Rebecca Hall has an uncanny ability to play characters that seem both strong and vulnerable at the same time, and her skill at that is milked perfectly in this film. Last year's best actor nominee Jeremy Renner continues proving that he's not afraid to take on tough roles, as his work in THE TOWN is easily one of the film's most difficult performances to carry out. The always great Chris Cooper has a brief role as Doug's father (if only he'd been allowed to be in more scenes). The biggest surprise may come from Blake Lively who does something here that may surprise those who are only familiar with her television work: she plays the "skanky white trash" character to a t, and if she'd been in more scenes, she may have had hopes to get the same recognition that Amy Ryan got for her work in Affleck's previous directorial effort.
If this is the kind of result we're going to keep getting if Affleck continues using his hometown as a location, I hope he does exactly that. The success of action dramas depends a lot on how well they're able to balance the fast-paced sequences with all the plot/character development. THE TOWN handles that well enough to be worth seeing.
6/10
