film review: the town
Written, directed and starring Ben Affleck, The Town is a gritty crime drama set in Boston’s northern proper, Charlestown. Despite the area’s historical significance (the Freedom Trail takes tourists directly through the area, concluding with the Bunker Hill Monument, which is photographed throughout the film), the area is cast in an unfavourable light in the film. It’s the home of members in the Irish mafia, and a small team of four life long friends whose income is derived from high profile theft. The film opens with the following quote: “There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. Most of these professionals live in a 1-square-mile neighborhood called Charleston. ” Indeed, Boston has been the setting of many crime dramas in recent years including The Departed, Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River.
The Town begins with a group of four masked men robbing a bank in Cambridge. From the outset it becomes clear that they have done this before: the crime is planned out meticulously. For some reason however, they decide to take the bank manager, Claire (played by Rebecca Hall) hostage. But Doug (played by Affleck), who appears to be the mastermind behind the robbery, seeks Claire out after she is released and they begin to date. The film follows the perils of their relationship as Claire later learns that he was in fact one of the masked men who kidnapped her. Meanwhile, the FBI is on their case and agent Adam Frawley (wonderfully played by Mad Men’s Jon Hamm) is intent on arresting the group. After another successful robbery where the team manage to escape a high speed chase scene with police, Doug is forced by the head of the mafia to complete another job, despite his hesitance and desire to leave ‘the town’ to start anew.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the team attempt the robbery, before thousands of swat cars encircle them. Do they escape? Well, you’ll have see the film to find out. While it certainly has its flaws, including the appearance of Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively as a trashy and unstable single parent, and the fact that some aspects of the narrative don’t seem to add up – Doug’s relationship with Claire for example, is not very believable and his family’s history becomes a secondary plot line. However, Jeremy Renner steals the spotlight as Doug’s tough, but loyal best friend and, overall, the film is quite captivating.
