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‘The Town’ is an interesting film in that it excels when it breaks away from the formula which it is so determined to stick to. The times when it strays away from the action and chooses to delve deeper into the characters, their histories and their relationships are the most engaging, and provide the films most tense and emotional moments. That’s not too say that the action sequences aren’t good, indeed, they’re all exceptionally well crafted, however, too much time is spent on them in comparison to the moving parts which allow them to take place in the first place. In that sense, the film is one of those rare action films which feels as though it needs another half an hour to provide real cutting edge.
The closest it comes to giving us this tension, this anxiety, is in scenes without the guns or the ramped up music, they’re in the smaller scenes - such as a lunch date. Doug (Ben Affleck) is on what must be his fourth or fifth date with Claire (Rebecca Hall) and they clearly both like each other, a lot. However, there’s something Claire doesn’t know about Doug which we do, so when Doug’s friend Jem (Jeremy Renner) unexpectedly joined the date, we reciprocate Doug’s body language telling Jem to get out of there and we feel genuine tension, nerves which you just don’t get with big shoot-outs or chases. Another example, when Doug and Jem get into a fight outside the graveyard, see Doug’s thinking of moving away with Claire and starting a new life for himself with her. This is something which irks Jem, who feels as though Doug owes him in some way, and needs to stick around to honour the fact that Jem’s family took him in. Doug and Jem are at odds as their ideologies clash, perhaps for the first time in their lives, and, having seen what Jem is capable of we as an audience fear that at any moment he could flip out, and kill the morally superior Doug. These are the moments which the film tackles well.
These moments are punctuated by action in the form of heists and they interrupt the deeper, philosophical message which the film is trying to tell us about the culture of crime. The intent is there, and the film goes 75% of the way to executing the message, but then it realises that most audiences haven’t come to see anything special, they just want a fun popcorn film with some exciting action scenes and a tangible plot. The action scenes are certainly exciting, take, for example, the opening, an armed bank robbery by men in masks. There’s fear in the eyes of everyone at the banker, but more so behind the masks of the robbers, who know that they don’t have long before the police are onto them. Hence, they pressure the bank worker Claire to open the safe as quickly as possible, or at least one does, Jem, the other is calming and patient as she opens the safe, that’s Doug. Circumstances become tough and they’re forced to take Claire hostage, albeit briefly, as they take her drivers license and set her free on the beach unharmed.
Claire is in pieces about the robbery, she’s freaking out and tearing up at laundromats, which is where she first meets the unmasked Doug, who’s carrying out a bit of surveillance to make sure that she doesn’t have any idea who the masked robbers were. Doug comforts her and takes her out for dinner, during which the pair really hit off, and more and more dates follow. Claire did know something about the robbers, but she didn’t tell the FBI, led by Jon Hamm, that she’d seen Jem’s tattoo on the back of the neck. This is why Doug is in such a hurry for Jem to get the hell out of there, during his and Claire’s date - one look at the back of his neck and she can put together the pieces and hand them over to the FBI all wrapped up. Not that the FBI are too far behind mind, they’ve got a good idea who the robbers are, they just lack any firm evidence to back it up.
Affleck, who doubles up as director as well, does very well to keep this narrative flowing and to create an engaging and broadly creative story which will keep you going. In fact, this film suggests that Affleck may be a better director than he is actor. He rarely misses a beat in the directing department here, or in ‘Gone Baby Gone’, however, whilst his acting is by no means bad, it doesn’t quite reach the levels of those around him, in particular the caring Hall and hotheaded Renner. Hall is consistently good in everything she does without every really garnering the attention or respect she deserves, and that is no different here as she delivers another solid performance as Claire in a range of emotions, from isolated to infatuated to despairing and ultimately angry, she controls the character and commands attention with every frame. Renner, who is often rather dull, gives one of his strongest performances as Jem, embedding himself in the Charlestown crime scene in such a manner that he wouldn’t be out of place there in real life. He is wild in his behaviour and most certainly a prick, but a prick with core values of loyalty and family which often give way to his impulsive streak.
The same could be said of his sister Krista (Blake Lively), a sometime lover of Doug, and a mother to a young girl, who’s father is never mentioned. Krista is similarly involved in the criminal world, though on a lower scale, dealing and consuming copious amounts of oxytocin and alcohol. Lively is surprisingly engaging in the role and has clearly put a lot of research and effort into helping to create the character, you just wish she had more screen time than she’s given. A pity then that the film was originally 4 hours, which Affleck cut down to 2 hours and 50 minutes, before cutting it down again to the 2 hours and 8 minutes it runs for. Those 42, or even 112 minutes, could have given not only Krista, but every other character, a lot more depth than the mere mention that they a troubled upbringing and have bene involved with crime since early on. In Doug’s case this is given a little more emphasis, as we meet his incarcerated father (Chris Cooper) in a brief jail visit, however, one just wishes something similar could have been done for Jem, or any other character.
A moment on the action sequences because they are largely what everyone will want to want to watch for. They are all very good, if not inventive, and at no stage did they become tedious or boring. Whether it was a large shootout or robbery, or a couple of chases, they were all thoroughly engaging and well shot. In particular, there’s one car chase around the middle of the film following a robbery, in which the gang are all in nun masks, they’re terrifyingly comedic and fit the slightly offbeat mood of the film perfectly. The issue I have with these action sequences is that although they’re exciting, they aren’t tense, they’re too fluid and feel far too unrealistic to give the viewer any nerves, even as they see a car careering down a narrow side-street.
All that being said, that is really the only flaw with Ben Affleck’s second feature film as director. Even then, the fault lies more with the studio than with Affleck, who has successfully created a smart, inventive popcorn film which will please all sorts of audiences. Ultimately, ‘The Town’ is undoubtedly an effective thriller, which excels in the periods without chases and gun battles but excites even when they occupy the screen. It is a curious case of a film that has no real problems in terms of what is shown, but rather in what isn’t.
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