am trying to figure out specifically why I feel rather insouciant towards Ben Affleck’s second directorial feature, The Town. The movie, on the surface, is well executed and well acted and the intriguing elements from the source novel, Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan are there. Yet, in contrast to the many positive reviews this film has received, I walked away in the end feeling the characters and story had never come to three dimensional life.
Part of the problem lies with the fact that the movie’s plot is much more familiar this time around than in Affleck’s very fine directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. We have seen the plot of the criminal wanting to get out after one final job and the anti-hero who finds unexpected love that compels to break out of his old ways. Thus, the story requires more life breathed into it to overcome its familiarity and the movie ultimately never quite gets there.
The setting of The Town is the neighborhood of Charlestown in Boston about which the movie informs us produces more bank robbers than any other town in the world. The film’s opening scene is a bank heist executed by Douglas McRay (Ben Affleck) and his gang including James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert “Gloansy” Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke). They hold the bank manager, Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) at gunpoint to open the vault, then briefly take her hostage blindfolded amidst their getaway.
Though unharmed, Claire, who is not a native of Charlestown, is traumatized by the experience. An FBI agent, Adam Brawley (Jon Hamm from TV's Mad Men) interviews her to learn what she remembers. She remembers nothing, as the gang wore masked disguises and she had been blindfolded when taken hostage.
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