'The Town' — 4.5 out of 5 stars
Charlestown, Massachusetts: Bank robbery capital of the United States of America. It is here that generations of blue-collar workers have perfected the art of stealing the American dream. Doug MacRay, portrayed by Ben Affleck, is the architect of such dubious schemes and follies, robbing banks and armored trucks all throughout the cobblestone streets of the claustrophobic Charlestown, the result of a myriad of generations taking root in the city when stepping off the boat.
Revolving around the slick heist team headed by Affleck and Jeremey Renner, "The Town" is steeped in an atmospheric sense of authenticity, a working class neighborhood run by the crimes they commit and the community it creates. Affleck has a strong sense of storytelling, and he masterfully crafts the two-hour plus running time into something brief and visceral, keeping the audience hooked and intrigued.
MU alumnus Jon Hamm, Chris Cooper, Rebecca Hall and Blake Lively round out the supporting cast, each respectively excellent in their roles as they contribute to the increasingly tense narrative. The tension in this film is palpable, it courses through the veins of every thespian involved, its tangible and concrete quality lend extremely well to the film's suspense. The writing is sharp and memorable — each line seems to linger in the forefront of your memory after impeccably spoken by the character on screen.
Only with a movie with this fast and quick of a plot are there snags with character development and depth. Affleck and Hall fall for each other after a planned meeting in a local laundromat, and Hall seems to spill her emotional secrets about what happened at the robbery too easily and loosely. Lively's character seems like an afterthought, thrown into the mix to add another layer of complication to the plot. Affleck wants "The Town" to be a piece about redemption and moving on after confronting the demons of your past, and the film offers brief glimpses of this thesis, but not enough of them to be seriously warranted.
Despite the small and subtle flaws chipped into the film, it still is extremely successful on the main fronts it occupies, and time seems to fly by as you're sucked into the gritty and callous world these men strive to carve an existence in, grasping at the remnants of the American dream.