The Town (2010— 125 mins) B. Affleck, J. Renner, J. Hamm

Just like Inception, The Town is a movie the whole world is raving about as the greatest thing since sliced bread. After all the hits he has taken here and there in the press, I have always been a bit of an Affleck fan. Him and Damon have this sort of innate cool about them, and have a very good sense of humor about themselves. They don’t take themselves orHollywood to serious and thus I think they are better actors/directors etc b/c of it. So despite not automatically buy into the hype I will give it some benefit due to Affleck.

The plot is pretty simple crime crew schtick. The Town reffers to Charlestown in Boston, a neighborhood which churns out bank robbers like some towns churn out high school graduates. Affleck is part of a fairly successful 4 man crew who we first meet in the middle of a elaborate bank job. Things go mostly as planned until James (Renner) gets a little out of hand with the bank manager slowing down the heist and the crew is forced to take a hostage. Once they realize later that the hostage is actually from the same area of Boston, they task Affleck to monitor her to make sure she cannot give the FBI any info on the heist. While monitoring and thus meeting her Doug (Affleck), dates and then falls in love with her. This helps to convince him even further to try and leave the crime life, which will prove to be a bit harder then he thought.

There is a bunch more that goes into the movie but that is the gist of it. The guys in the crew are good. They seem authentic and you get the sense that these guys are truely brothers and rely/lean on each other often. I want to also point out Jeremy Renner. He is real good as Affleck’s best friend. He’s not so much bad as he has given up on anything other then being what he is, a thief. He has a complete knack of playing this type of character. He brings that same ambiguous likability to the role as he does in “The Hurt Locker”. That certain we aren’t 100% sure if we like him or not. On the surface his character is a crass A-hole trying to keep Doug in the rat race, but there is a lot more to him. A certain loyalty to his town and his extended “family”. 

As the love interest Claire, Rebecca Hall is subtly strong. I think a bigger actress bringing more gusto to the part would have taken too much away from the movie and strength of the other characters. She is meant to be vital to the story but not quite as main as the eothers, and I think that’s where Hall succeeds the best. Excellent job by here.

Verdict—> Just like Inception, it’s a good movie and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. It’s not the best movie in the world like some people will have you believe but it’s still an enjoyable watch for sure. Pick it up it’s worth the rental and a top level recommendation.

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