Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Town

Two great movie genres are brought together in The Town; bank heists and Boston accents. Finally. And it is now quite clear that Ben Affleck needs to dedicate his professional life to directing. He is two for two and if he can make a movie that doesn’t take place in Boston … we just may be on to something here.

This time around Ben puts himself in front of the camera instead of his kid brother and steers hard into the Boston accent. In other words, this was completely inside his wheelhouse and he took advantage by giving one of the best performances of his career. But better than that, he surrounded himself with a strong core of supporting performances. How can you not look good when you are bouncing dialogue off Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Chris Cooper, Rebecca Hall, Pete Postlethwaite, my man Titus Welliver, and an awesomely white trash Blake Lively. Just a phenomenal cast working with some quality material. The movie revolved around Affleck but everyone else got to play some great characters. Renner was a perfect lunatic partner. Hamm was the dick fed making you feel sympathy for the criminals. Cooper and Postlethwaite got to play the hardened crooks in Affleck’s life. And I must reiterate how much fun Lively was as the street trash that Affleck is leaving behind. Good stuff.

Now the plot was fairly obvious, but it’s a heist film and I’m not looking for a twist in every act. Just introduce the thieves, show them in action, show me the big target, watch them prep, have it all go to hell, and hopefully surprise me a bit with the ending. The Town did all of that and did it slickly. Full marks.

I could watch movies like The Town every single week. There is nothing I would change about this film. It may not be best movie released in 2010 but sometimes just being a great movie is enough.

9 out of 10

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