Review of The Town (2010) by Shanebot — 30 Sep 2010

This is a movie full of hits and misses. Ben Affleck directing is a hit. Ben Affleck acting is a miss. I personally feel that Mr. Affleck suffers from the terminal disease of being too-likable-in-a-normal-sort-of-way.

The kind of likeable that I would have over to watch a hockey game. Not the kind of likeable that I would believe could rob banks and have one of the hostages fall in love with him. There are other actors out there who suffer from a similar disease of being too good looking to be believable.

Luckily, there are some other very qualified personal who are able to make the most of their characters. And Affleck allows them the space in order to do it. The movie clips along at an efficient pace and effectively balances out action and drama.

The action scenes are well executed and get the adrenaline pumping, but I found some of the smaller scenes were handled more clumsily. This was a disappointment considering Affleck's previous film Gone Baby Gone.

In particular the scene involving Renner, Affleck and Hall sitting at a cafe would have produced it's menacing intentions more effectively using subtlety rather than telegraphed acting and dialogue. The movie closes out with more hits and misses, but Affleck still shows promise as a budding director.