The Town
Directed By: Ben Affleck
Written By: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockland
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively
With Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck announced himself as a directorial talent, with his follow up The Town, he is keen to show that Gone Baby Gone was no one hit wonder and that he is a director to be reckoned with. Set in Charlestown, Boston the film is about a group of bank robbers who in their most recent job took bank manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage. When Jim (Jeremy Renner), one of the gang members learns that she lives close to them, group leader Doug (Ben Affleck) is sent to “deal” with the problem, however he slowly starts to fall in the love with the problem and longs for an escape from the crime ridden streets he is trapped in.
The Town is incredibly similar in terms of style and story to films we have seen countless times before, the film is full of clichés. The man who wants an escape, the one last job, falling in love with the hostage, battling your past etc. there is nothing particularly original about The Town with it being a poor mans cross over of Heat and The Departed. Some of the major problems with The Town however is how it handles its cast. John Hamm who is a fantastic actor (Some of you may know him as Don Draper in Mad Men) however his character in this is sorely underdeveloped and underused, on the contrary Blake Lively who is not a great actress is in it way to much, is overused, an annoyance and quite frankly out of her depth.
The films director and lead Ben Affleck displays two things in this film
1) He is an incredibly promising director
2) He should give up acting
Affleck is not terrible in the lead role, however he is not the leading man this film needs and his performance does not help the film. His direction on the other hand, is fantastic. The films direction is much more stylish than I was expecting and Affleck adds some fantastic touches. Slow mo, black and white flashbacks, lack of sound, security camera POVs are used expertly to make the film much more directorially impressive than I was expecting. The action scenes are also impressively done with some entertaining bank heists, car chases and shootouts.
The two best performances in the town are undoubtedly Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner. Those two make the film and give fantastic performances as characters that could have been cliché, annoying or disposable (I’m looking at you Blake Lively) Rebecca Hall gives an incredibly underrated performance and in my opinion one of the better leading actress performances of the year. Jeremy Renner however gives the films best performance as the loose cannon in the bank robber gang. His scenes are the best in the film, in particular a lunch scene and a scene by a graveyard. His moments on screen are the films best and he continues to show why he is one of the finest actors working in Hollywood today.
The film suffers at times from poor pacing and at times is rather slow and dull, it also brings up many sub plots that it either doesn’t develop fully or rushes. Ultimately the film could of benefited from more Hamm, less Lively, no Affleck in front of the camera and better pacing. The films love story aspect skids along the borders of at times being genuinely engaging and in fact more interesting than the cops and robbers aspect of the story and at times incredibly cliché and nowhere near as emotional as it wants to be.
Despite its flaws, on a positive note The Town is well directed by Affleck, has two great performances from Hall and Renner and is an entertaining film. What really sets this film apart from other gangster films however is a genuine emotional attachment and care for its setting. The film ends with a disclaimer stating how the depiction of Charlestown as a haven for crime is accurate but that the film is dedicated to the hard working and honest folk of Charlestown. You get the feeling that Affleck really cares about the story he is telling, regretfully we don’t feel the same emotion.
Overall The Town contains good action sequences, great direction from Affleck, some great performances and is an entertaining film. However it’s slow pace and uneven approach in terms of stories and characters as well as its lack of originality stop it from being a great crime movie and instead just a good one.
One Sentence Summary: Entertaining and well made with good performances however the films flaws stop it from achieving its full potential.
Rating: 7/10
Directed By: Ben Affleck
Written By: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockland
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively
With Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck announced himself as a directorial talent, with his follow up The Town, he is keen to show that Gone Baby Gone was no one hit wonder and that he is a director to be reckoned with. Set in Charlestown, Boston the film is about a group of bank robbers who in their most recent job took bank manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage. When Jim (Jeremy Renner), one of the gang members learns that she lives close to them, group leader Doug (Ben Affleck) is sent to “deal” with the problem, however he slowly starts to fall in the love with the problem and longs for an escape from the crime ridden streets he is trapped in.
The Town is incredibly similar in terms of style and story to films we have seen countless times before, the film is full of clichés. The man who wants an escape, the one last job, falling in love with the hostage, battling your past etc. there is nothing particularly original about The Town with it being a poor mans cross over of Heat and The Departed. Some of the major problems with The Town however is how it handles its cast. John Hamm who is a fantastic actor (Some of you may know him as Don Draper in Mad Men) however his character in this is sorely underdeveloped and underused, on the contrary Blake Lively who is not a great actress is in it way to much, is overused, an annoyance and quite frankly out of her depth.
The films director and lead Ben Affleck displays two things in this film
1) He is an incredibly promising director
2) He should give up acting
Affleck is not terrible in the lead role, however he is not the leading man this film needs and his performance does not help the film. His direction on the other hand, is fantastic. The films direction is much more stylish than I was expecting and Affleck adds some fantastic touches. Slow mo, black and white flashbacks, lack of sound, security camera POVs are used expertly to make the film much more directorially impressive than I was expecting. The action scenes are also impressively done with some entertaining bank heists, car chases and shootouts.
The two best performances in the town are undoubtedly Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner. Those two make the film and give fantastic performances as characters that could have been cliché, annoying or disposable (I’m looking at you Blake Lively) Rebecca Hall gives an incredibly underrated performance and in my opinion one of the better leading actress performances of the year. Jeremy Renner however gives the films best performance as the loose cannon in the bank robber gang. His scenes are the best in the film, in particular a lunch scene and a scene by a graveyard. His moments on screen are the films best and he continues to show why he is one of the finest actors working in Hollywood today.
The film suffers at times from poor pacing and at times is rather slow and dull, it also brings up many sub plots that it either doesn’t develop fully or rushes. Ultimately the film could of benefited from more Hamm, less Lively, no Affleck in front of the camera and better pacing. The films love story aspect skids along the borders of at times being genuinely engaging and in fact more interesting than the cops and robbers aspect of the story and at times incredibly cliché and nowhere near as emotional as it wants to be.
Despite its flaws, on a positive note The Town is well directed by Affleck, has two great performances from Hall and Renner and is an entertaining film. What really sets this film apart from other gangster films however is a genuine emotional attachment and care for its setting. The film ends with a disclaimer stating how the depiction of Charlestown as a haven for crime is accurate but that the film is dedicated to the hard working and honest folk of Charlestown. You get the feeling that Affleck really cares about the story he is telling, regretfully we don’t feel the same emotion.
Overall The Town contains good action sequences, great direction from Affleck, some great performances and is an entertaining film. However it’s slow pace and uneven approach in terms of stories and characters as well as its lack of originality stop it from being a great crime movie and instead just a good one.
One Sentence Summary: Entertaining and well made with good performances however the films flaws stop it from achieving its full potential.
Rating: 7/10