Affleck makes a film more about the Robbers than the Robbery...

Affleck knows this city like the back of his hand. All of the streets have this great claustrophobic feel to them that only builds over time, and there are some moments in the film where he’s not afraid to just take in the beauty surrounding a very grim situation. Take for instance, a scene where Doug and Jem are going in to basically bust some heads. As they cross the street to get into the future victim’s apartment, Affleck gets a great shot of a beautiful memorial in the background. Why did he do this? He could have easily shot that 3 second scene anywhere else, but he knows what his audience appreciates. This being Affleck’s second feature film, it’s admirable how much finesse he shows in shooting his big action pieces. The guy has a great choreography to each of his fights so they have just enough emotional punch, and that they all mean something to the story. There’s a car chase about 3/4 of the way through the film that is easily one of my favorites in the past couple of years of film. However, when all is said and done, The Town is going to be remembered by me for not delivering a few great action pieces or having that peppered by a fantastic group of talented actors, but for me it’s going to be the story that Affleck produces amongst the gunfire and bad Irish stereotypes. Although it does make the film feel a little heavy length-wise (the film clocks in at a little over 2 hours, but it feels like a really long 2 hours), there’s a lot of time spent making sure these character’s resonate. You get to know them, learn their tendencies, how they react in situations, and it all builds and builds to help the overall impact of the movie. As you get to know who these characters are it makes the action scenes all the more tense because you truly know what’s at stake each time a bullet leaves the chamber. There’s no meaningless death made famous by the likes of Bruckheimer or Bay, but every time a character hits the ground, it’s something worth noticing. The series of events that take place in the film work in a way that allows the stakes to gradually build higher and higher in a really unique way. Without giving too much away, there’s a scene or two in the film that will have you cringing in your seat as you really explore the paranoia that comes with robbing banks, and Affleck (as a director at least) enjoys every second of it. All of this intercedes with the film’s incredible message (I’ll leave it to be a surprise for you all) that weaves in and throughout the film’s events in almost a Shakespearean way, and completely makes sense by the time the film fades to black. When I start to think about The Town, there’s only a couple of things I could point out as being a “fault”. As I said earlier the film did feel a little long even at the two hour span, but it never really drags, it just takes its time and covers a lot of ground. Another thing you could almost count Affleck to a fault for was being a little over-ambitious with his plot. He tries to get a lot of material in there, from the relationship between Doug and Jem’s sister that never really goes as far as it clearly wants to, to Jon Hamm’s role that’s never quite explained enough, there’s a little bit of room left to breathe in Affleck’s script that would have been nice to see explored in another 20-30 minutes. I know those two criticisms contradict each other, but I guess that’s how film journalism works some times. At the end of the day, it can be argued The Town is the best film in theaters now. The film deserves a truck load of Oscar love come March, and for a variety of reasons. The Town is a culmination of great performers, great writing, and great coordination by its director, it ends with a bang, and it’s a hard cinematic experience to forget.