Review of The Town (2010) by John S — 09 Apr 2013

"The Town", Ben Affleck's second film as a a director, is absolutely, mind-blowingly good. It's about a group of people who steal stuff for a living. In the movie, there are lots of gunfights, shooting, action scenes, and cursing.

In other words, everybody will find this awesome.

The film centers around Doug MacRay (Affleck), who is simply the next in line to take up the family business. To give you an idea of how successful this business is, his dad is serving life in prison. "I'd have to die five times before I'd be here long enough to get out," he says when his son visits him in jail.

Still, though, MacRay is confident in his ability to do what he needs to do, and his team is surely the right one to help him. One of the members of his quartet is James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner, worlds different from The Hurt Locker). James is the wild card. He's too reckless and impulsive. There does seem to be a character like this in pretty much every movie in existence, but Renner seamlessly integrates him into the story. He makes it believable that maybe some crime lords could get ticked off a lot.

Anyways, during the opening heist, Coughlin takes a hostage. They let her go, but she sees a tattoo on the back of his neck.

This is where the film really starts to succeed. At a later meeting between MacRay and the hostage (played by Rebbecca Hall, who has no idea MacRay was her kidnapper), Coughlin shows up, unexpected.

MacRay is shooting him feverish glances. "Get the hell out of there, before she sees the tattoo, or we're all caught!" is what he's thinking and what we, the audience, are screaming. During this brilliant scene, my heart beat faster and I sat on the edge of my seat.

This is a complex movie. At first glance, you see just the plot and assume it's another one of those crime movies with no character traits, because it does suffer a bit from the standard shoot outs and car chases that have become the same throughout most movies. But then how do you explain Coughlin's depth? Or MacRay way of thinking? Or even the complex decisions made by FBI agent Adam Frawley (John Hamm)?

Bottom line: I can't say much about The Town because it isn't possible to express what the film is about through merely me telling you. You just need to see it, it's that good. I don't know why Jeremy Renner was the ONLY one nominated for anything major (an Oscar and a Golden Globe), but regardless of what anyone thinks, The Town kept me riveted for the full two hours and ten minutes and it didn't disappoint or fall short in anything, and when a movie comes around that's like that, then you know it's something special.