The Town: Blu Ray Review

The Town: Blu Ray Review

The Town
Released by Warner Bros
Rating: M
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.

Rating: 8/10