The Town
Review
by Anthony Morris
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The Town
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Some actors dabble in directing and get mixed results; with The Town only
his second film as director, faded star Ben Affleck is showing himself
to be moving ahead of many full‑time film‑makers. It
doesn't hurt that he's directing himself here, playing Doug MacRay, the
leader of a gang of Boston bankrobbers whose increasingly brazen antics
have attracted the FBI (in the form of Mad Men's Jon Hamm). Worse,
he's also fallen for bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) who his gang
took hostage (then let go) in their most recent raid. Quitting his life of crime isn't an option thanks to a sinister boss (Pete Postlethwaite) and a best friend (The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner) who'd rather kill him than see him leave the old neighbourhood behind. What's a poor bank robber to do? The Town is more of a rock‑solid slice of genre fiction than anything really original, especially if you've seen Heat any time recently. But there are lot worse films to knock off than Heat, and the performances here are more than good enough to give the characters life beyond their genre roots. Where The Town
really takes off is in the numerous heist sequences; consistently edgy
and often startlingly effective, they show Affleck to be a first‑class
director of suspense. On the (slightly) down side,
the story ticks the right boxes but lacks freshness, especially if
you've had enough of brutal crims with soft centres. It's
not exactly implausible that Doug has no problem sticking a gun in
someone's face to get money but goes all mushy over a girl, but
considering the brutal effectiveness of the heist scenes it does
detract from the knife‑edge reality that's The Town's greatest strength. Still,
Affleck's work behind and in front of the camera makes this better than
it should be : maybe there are second acts in Hollywood after all. 3.5 out
of 5
The Town
Australian release: 7th October,
2010
Official
Site: The Town
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Robert Paterson, José Luis García-Pérez, Stephen
Tobolowsky, Samantha Mathis, Warner Loughlin, Erik Palladino, Ivana
Miño
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
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