2010: The Year in Film: "The Town" Review.

"I need you to help me hurt some people. I can't tell you why, and you can never ask me about it again" - Doug.
"Which car do we take?" - Jem.

I managed to score some passes of an advanced screening of this one and you'd better believe I jumped at the opportunity. Sometimes it just seems like they make movies specifically for me - and hell, who am I to argue? This is one of my most anticipated movies of the fall, and has been getting some serious buzz, so needless to say, I was more than happy to catch an advanced screening. If you would have told the 20-year old me I'd be excited for a Ben Affleck directorial vehicle I'd have laughed you out of the room - but such is the state of things. 2007's "Gone Baby Gone" was an extremely strong debut - and dealt with the rough blue collar Bostonian underbelly dealt with here. One thing is for sure - Affleck can paint a picture of a location - and the locale is as much a character as any of those played by the actors. He may wind up being for blue-collar Boston what Scorsese is for New York - but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

In addition to directing Affleck stars in this one, portraying Doug McCray, a one-time pro hockey player who washed out and wound up in the family business - robbing banks and armored cars. McCray is smart, fiercely loyal, calculating and imposing. He's the glue that holds his crew together. His best friend and literal partner in crime is a loose cannon named James "Jem" Coughlin, an unpredictable, often brutal menace for whom family and loyalty are paramount. Jeremy "The Hurt Locker" Renner brings a twitchy, troubling menace to his portrayal of Jem, a guy who is literally a blink away from murder at any given time. Jem and Doug have been best friends for basically their entire lives, and now take that trust and camaraderie into the violent but lucrative business of holding up banks and armored cars. Their crew is a sophisticated, efficient outfit, adept at moving quickly and eluding capture. They labor for a local crime boss known as "The Florist", played with an absurd amount of menace by Pete Postlethwaite. On a bank/armored car holdup one day, something goes wrong, Jem brutally beats a bank manager who he thinks set off a silent alarm. This leads to the taking of a hostage, a beautiful bank manager played by relative newcomer Rebecca Hall. The crew decides that in order to find out how much she knows, they have to trail her to ensure she doesn't talk. Doug winds up falling for the beautiful witness as the FBI (in the person of Mad Men's Jon Hamm) closes in on their trail. Doug is torn between who he is (a bank robber) and who he would be and is forced to choose between the life he's known and the life he so desperately wants for himself as the FBI closes the noose.

This film is beautifully shot, the leads are outstanding, and the story is solid. Several of the robbery scenes, the first two in particular, are tremendous. This film is entertaining, tense, and often quite funny in the dark, off-kilter fashion of the modern crime film. The often picture-esque wide shots of the city and the neighborhood are amazing, and Affleck is a director with quite the eye. However, this film isn't without its flaws. The plot demands a certain suspension of disbelief at times, as the crew can seem just a bit TOO good at their craft. The ending is a bit too "Hollywood" and neat for an Oscar contender and some of the characters lack sufficient characterization. The acting, however, is top notch. Hamm comes into his own in the film's later half, and becomes a terrific foil for the criminals we can't help but find ourselves rooting for. All in all, this is a strong film, memorable with some great characters and terrific scenes, but it never manages to rise to its potential. With a few adjustments, this could have been an Oscar front-runner, but I'll settle for a more than solid crime flick.

8/10.