The Town: Movie Review

The Town: Movie Review

The Town
Rating: 8/10
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Titus Welliver, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper
Director: Ben Affleck
Well, I think the first definite contender for Oscars 2011 just hit our cinemas.
In this flick, set in Charlestown in America, Affleck is Doug MacRay, a criminal who's found robbing banks is the only way to survive the miserable drudgery of working a construction job.
However, he along with his three co-robbers, end up abducting the manager of the latest bank they turn over - Claire, played by Rebecca Hall.
The problem is that they're not sure what Claire saw or heard so when Doug's volatile buddy Jem (a searingly jumpy turn by Jeremy Renner) suggests keeping an eye on her, Doug decides it'd be safer if he looked out for Claire.
As Doug and Claire's relationship begins to flourish into something, the police (led by Mad Men's Jon Hamm and Lost's Man in Black Titus Welliver) begin to close in on the gang - and Doug starts to wonder if he can ever escape from the life he's forged for himself.
I hadn't been expecting too much from a Ben Affleck outing to be honest - but thanks to some excellently restrained directing which allows the story to breathe and come to life, he's managed to put together a corker of a film with some brilliant ensemble performances - from the likes of Gossip Girl's Blake Lively as Jem's sister who's had an off-on-off again thing with Doug and is resentful of Claire to Jeremy Renner's nerve tingling performance as Jem, a man who can explode at any second.
That's not to say the likes of Pete Postlethwaite as a gangland kingpin who runs a florist and a cameo from Chris Cooper as Doug's dad don't shine - everyone brings their A game to this flick about desperation, hopes of escape and the promise of another life.
But it's Affleck who gives his soul to this project - action scenes, intelligent humour (one cop says at one point "You need a Venn diagram to keep all these together") and sensitive directing help the maudlin tone rise into something gripping and compelling.
It's the small dramatic moments which keep the film from the "too earnest" category which could have seen it derail as the fragile house of cards MacRay's stacked begin to fall.

Look for this to figure in the Oscars next year - and possibly someone from the Town to be heading up to the stage to pick something golden up.