A Night At The Movies: "The Town"

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see the new Ben Affleck film "The Town."  Initially, when I saw the previews for "The Town", I thought it looked like your average, run in the mill crime genre film.  Films with ski masks and bank robberies were nothing new in my world and not groundbreaking film making ideas.  Initially, I had no intention of seeing this film.  That is until it got a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and rave reviews from even the most unseasoned film-goers in my life.

I would like to go off on a small digression about Ben Affleck.  I would like to say "I told you so" to all of those people who said Ben Affleck was a horrible actor and had no place in Hollywood.  Sure he was in horrible films with miserable acting roles such as "Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor," "Jersey Girl," "Daredevil," and who can forget the worst movie ever that practically destroyed his acting career "Gigli."  However, Ben Affleck has been in many other films that have been completely overlooked and are, in fact, good movies where Ben Affleck shines as an actor:

1.  All of Kevin Smith's early films ("Mallrats," "Chasing Amy," arguably "Dogma")
2.  "Good Will Hunting"
3.  "Boiler Room"
4.  "Paycheck"
5.  His roles in "Smokin' Aces" and "He's Just Not That Into You" I thought were wonderfully played
6.  "State of Play"
7.  Finally, "The Town"

Also, his directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" was great and was a wonderful prelude to "The Town."

So for all of those people who hated Ben Affleck up until now, I must once again say "I told you so" and "Ben, I got your back."

Now, "The Town" was very good and exceeded my expectations substantially.  While the ending was a bit obvious and the love story sub-plot was a bit weak, the film itself had heart and authenticity that only a skilled writer/director could pull off.  The opening scene was thrilling and fantastically paced and shot.  The timing of the titles were impeccable and the casting was all spot on.  Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") was unbelievable as was (suprisingly) Blake Lively, who manages to step out of her typecasted, pretty-girl, gossip-girl role, and plays a dysfunctional drug addict from the slums of Boston.  Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") was incredible, as I expected.  Rebecca Hall ("Vicky, Christina, Barcelona") was also great, but not as good as Renner, Lively and Hamm.  And last but not least, Ben Affleck, whose acting abilities really shined in this film.  He played his character unbelievably well.  His character was similar in tone to Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damons roles in "The Departed" but I would argue that Affleck's acting ability in "The Town" blew Leo's and Damon's performances out of the water. 

The direction by Affleck also deserves a quick mention.  Each scene in "The Town" was shot perfectly.  The shoot-out scenes seemed real and not too staged.  In fact, the only other shoot-out scene that I can remember being as good as "The Town" is the bank robbery finale in "Heat," which is by far the best shoot-out scene in the history of film.  The pacing of "The Town" was perfect and I thought the flashbacks to Hall walking to the water after the opening bank robbery scene were wonderful touches to the emotional depth of the film.

So this reviewer would like to give "The Town" 4/5 stars.  Great stuff, Benny.

Prepstarr