| 
| 
Tommer on TinsleTown reviews “The Town”
Watching “The Town,” one can easily that see it was directed by the same Ben Affleck who has been less than stellar in many movie flops (“Gigli”, “Surviving Christmas”, “Paycheck” & ”Pearl Harbor”) and for a long time was known mostly as one half of “Bennifer.”
Sadly, Mr. Affleck is just making more of the same. The success of “Gone Baby Gone,” his directorial debut in 2007, was a fluke. His sophomore effort is not the same caliber of his debut. The pace of this movie is jerky at best, and the action comes in predictable spurts.
Affleck directs and stars in this movie. He plays the main character, Doug MacRay, who is the leader of a four-man bank-robbery crew based in Charlestown. The cocky quartet excels in the planning of efficient and violent bank robberies. Jeremy Renner, costars as Jimmy Coughlin, Doug’s oldest friend and his biggest weakness. While Doug wants to leave his life of crime behind, Jimmy will not permit him to move on with his life as Jimmy’s sister, Krista, (Blake Lively, from Gossip Girls fame) is in love with Doug.
The movie begins with a bank robbery gone wrong. In the midst of the robbery, the quartet takes the assistant bank manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage. After Claire is released, in an attempt to find out if she can identify the robbers, Doug begins to follow her and a romance begins. It is worthy to note that the bank manager is played by none other than the ever present Victor Garber, who is uncredited for his admirable, but otherwise forgettable performance in this movie. Why should he be credited? After all, he only has about 3 minutes of screen time.
The romance between the robber and the victim is what causes the film to lose its way. At one point, Doug is asking about the robbers, and Claire responds that while she did not see them, she could certainly remember their voices. Eventually, Doug confesses all to Claire, who promptly reports what she knows to the FBI, led by Jon Hamm as Special Agent Adam Frawley. After the predictable last shootout, Doug digresses to a Robin Hood in an attempt to win back the heart of Claire. The close of the movie felt like a scene straight out of Shawshank Redemption, but without the closeness and empathy for the protagonist.
The remainder of the cast is an ensemble. The standout performance came from Chris Cooper as Stephen MacRay, Doug’s incarcerated bank robber father. He was a scene stealer, but his onscreen time was not sufficient.
As an actor, Affleck has made his bones, but as a director, he still has much to prove. He needs to spread his wings and move beyond the comfort zone of bad accent Bostonian crime.
The Town is a decent effort, but it is certainly not worth the $10 or so to buy a ticket. In fact, if you just watch the trailer to this movie, you understand the whole plot without sacrificing over 2 hours of your life. It is probably best to wait until Blockbuster Express rents this movie for $1. Any critic that gives this movie more than 2 stars should have their credentials revoked and be subjected to a forced eye examination.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
