Nuns with Guns ~ Movie Review of ‘The Town’

You have to give it to Ben Affleck when it comes to rehabbing his career – Lindsay Lohan take note.  After his Bennifer years (Jennifer Lopez and he broke up in 2004) Affleck’s career seemed as if it would soon be on life support.  Listen, no former A list star consents to be on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ if they still have to dodge the paparazzi wherever they go.

 

                I liked ‘The Town’ because it is a gritty film with a lot of good performances.  A friend and I were even debating if Affleck is going to become the next Clint Eastwood in terms of being a decent actor but a much better movie director.  I do think, in terms of being a love interest in a film, he has to work a little more on the hunk factor considering that one of his co-stars in the film was Jon Hamm.  Maybe grow his hair a tad longer, I don’t know if the look he sported in the movie necessarily screams Boston, but it didn’t do much for his lady fans. 

 

                ‘The Town’ is based on the book ‘Prince of Thieves’ by Chuck Hogan.  The town in the title refers to the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston which is a working class neighborhood with a reputation for being on the tough side.  Affleck plays Doug MacRay who is the brains behind a small group of career criminals who rob banks.  At one point in his life he had a chance to escape a life of crime through hockey but it didn’t pan out so here he is with his best buds robbing a bank and giving movie viewers a bank robbery 101 lesson – surprise key ingredient: bleach.  It is during one of the robberies that MacRay meets the girl of his dreams played by Rebecca Hall who is an assistant bank manager that the group kidnaps for hostage protection and then sets free barefooted with a blindfold near the ocean.  As fate would have it, the group finds out that she too lives in their Charlestown neighborhood and start to fear that she might at some point recognize them.  MacRay is assigned the task of trying to feel her out to see if she knows anything and send her a message if she does; instead he falls in love. 

 

                ‘The Town’ has multiple layers to it, which is something that is necessary to make this sort of movie work because lord knows you aren’t watching it for the warm fuzzies.  Affleck along with Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard wrote the film.  It is well acted and the action sequences will keep you on your toes. I found scenes such as when the gang is riding around Boston sporting their nun masks unsettling.  The standout performance was Jeremy Renner who starred in 2009’s Best Picture ‘The Hurt Locker’.  If Affleck’s character is the brains, then Renner’s James Coughlin is the heart and ambition of the gang.  Unlike Affleck, he has no desire to leave the only place he knows – he just wants to be rich.  Blake Lively plays Coughlin’s sister and she made a good impression in what appears to be her first adult role, although her character is the belle of the ball at her local tavern she is quickly morphing into that woman you sometimes see at local haunts who is talking loudly about all of her pent up sexual energy, but finds there are no takers. 

 

                Overall, I would recommend seeing ‘The Town’ either in the theater or DVD/cable.  It was the sort of movie that didn’t leave the audience devastated, perhaps a little bittersweet.  It makes for a good date movie.

 

Westerfield © 2010