'THE TOWN' : archive from 29th October 2010.

I saw 'THE TOWN' earlier this week and really enjoyed this latest Ben Affleck Directed heist film, that after his success with 'Gone Baby Gone' is proving that Mr. Affleck is a talent to be reckoned with as much behind the camera as in front of it. As well as being Directed by Affleck, he co-wrote and stars in this adaptation of the novel 'Prince of Thieves' by Chuck Hogan and does so with an intense gritty realism that sets it apart from other such films of the crime drama genre. The film was made for US$37M and grossed US$154M, and it garnered co-star Jeremy Renner an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The opening voiceover tells us 'The Town', which is set in the one square mile of Charlestown in Boston, has the highest robbery rate in the USA with over 300 every year. If you do your research you'll find there is some poetic license in this statement, but nonetheless it serves to set the tone for the film you are about to see as four lifelong friends from the Charlestown neighbourhood rob a bank. These friends are Douglas 'Doug' MacRay (Ben Affleck), James 'Jem' Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan (George Carroll aka Slaine), and Desmond 'Dez' Elden (Owen Burke), and in robbing this bank they take the Manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage but release her soon afterwards, unharmed.

A short while later they learn that Keesey lives in their own neighbourhood, and so Doug follows her in an attempt to learn how much she has told the local Boston Police Department, and to protect her from Jem who would likely silence her as a material witness. Doug approaches her, they connect and in time a romance starts to blossom, but he keeps this from the other gang members.

As they get closer to each other Doug confides to Keesey that he continues to search for his long lost mother whom he believes is in Florida, that he gave up a lucrative career as a hockey player to pursue a life of crime and in doing so has followed in his fathers footsteps - father Stephen MacRay (Chris Copper) who is banged up in jail. Keesey advises Doug that she glimpsed a tattoo on one of the robbers during the raid on her bank, and would recognise it again should she see it. Knowing that the tattoo belongs to Jem and he would kill her to prevent her from revealing his identity, Doug persuades Keesey that the Police would not be able to protect her, so she should not step forward and reveal what she knows for her own safety. She heeds his advice.

Meanwhile Special Agent Adam Frawley (John Hamm) has the gang under surveillance because of their ties to a local crime boss Fergus 'Fergie' Colm (Pete Postlethwaite) who has another job for them in the Boston neighbourhood of North End. This robbery does not go according to plan, and the gang barely escape. Despite being interrogated by Frawley, the gang are released due to the lack of any evidence or a confession, and so Doug asks Keesey if she will leave with him to seek a better life, and track down his mother - she agrees, and quits her job. This raises the suspicions of Frawley who smelling a rat, wiretaps her phone and then reveals the truth about Doug and his associates to her. Reeling from the truth she is forced to co-operate and breaks it off with Doug.

With the next job pending Fergie threatens to kill Keesey if Doug does not proceed with a robbery on Fenway Park - the home of the Boston Red Sox - where there is a $3.5M haul to be had. With Frawley tipped off by Doug's ex-girlfriend Krista (Blake Lively) that there is a robbery going down at Fenway Park, the FBI surround the ground before the gang can get away. There is an intense firefight in which Gloansy, Dez and Jem are killed. Knowing that Keesey is still in danger and that his chances of escaping the life of crime are limited as long as Fergie is still calling the shots, Doug takes out Fergie and his bodyguard. Having escaped the firefight at the park Doug flees undercover leaving the money behind for Keesey to find and make better use of than he could.

I liked this film . . . a lot, for its gritty subject matter, its fast paced and well choreographed robbery sequences and subsequent fall-out, the performances which are strong and real, and for the deft touch in Direction which Affleck is displaying here once again. 'The Town' is up there with Michael Mann's 'Heat' and the other Boston set films of the same genre 'The Boondocks Saints', Scorsese's 'The Departed' and Eastwood's 'Mystic River'. The film picked up two award wins and another thirteen nominations around the traps and was hailed a critical and commercial success.

If you missed this at the movies catch it now on DVD, Bluray or download - you won't be disappointed - 'The Town' delivers on all levels.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-