adambatman82
Posts: 11156
Joined: 15/12/2005
From: Sheffield
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The Town, 2010. Ben Affleck.
2010 has proven a great year for the heist film, with Christopher Nolan’s Inception bringing the genre back to the forefront of the focus of Hollywood. Ben Affleck’s latest film, his sophomore effort and third part of his Boston Trilogy follows in the tradition of Michael Mann’s Heat and the Soderbergh Ocean’s films in revitalising the archetypical Heist flick for a new audience.
The Town tells the story of its eponymous locale. The Charlestown borough of Boston is home to some of very best career criminals in the United States, with a rich heritage of regionally inbred bank robbers. Fathers pass the mantle of criminal down to their sons, with each generation as damned as the next. Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) decides that its time for him to get out of the trade, having fallen for Claire (Rebecca Hall) one of the victims of a previous job. As is the norm with these kind of scenarios its not quite as easy as one might expect to leave a life of crime behind, and in an effort to appease the local mob boss, Doug agrees to commit one final job before going his own way.
Affleck turns in a fine performance in this, his second attempt at directing, as the reformed criminal, yet it is behind the camera where the star really shines. His directorial debut Gone Baby Gone (2007) was a major surprise in a way, with Affleck’s early talent largely concealed during the decade between Good Will Hunting (1997) and Gone Baby Gone through a series of bad decisions casting wise. With Gone Baby Gone, Affleck reminded the film world of the ability exhibited with his breakthrough feature, and I’m happy to report that The Town also follows in this tradition.
While Affleck’s own performance may be the central focus of the film, The Town is very much an ensemble piece. Perhaps the most resonating turn comes from Jeremy Renner, the Oscar nominated lead from last years The Hurt Locker (2009). Renner’s James Coughlin is viscious in the tradition of Goodfellas Tommy DeVito, a loose canon that brings with him a nerve-wracking sense of danger whenever he appears onscreen. Renner’s creation is a terrible creature that one cant keep their eyes off of, in spite of the natural urge to look away in fear. That his is the most thoroughly honest redemptive arc throughout the film, even over that of Affleck’s MacRay is noteworthy, in that it affirms the notion that a past is unshakeable. While the MacRay of the final frames may be personally “free”, he doesn’t feel wholly removed from his life of crime. As films like A History Of Violence (2005) or Gilda (1946) have shown, your past will catch up with you, so with that in mind one finds it difficult to accept that the climax of The Town brings with it the end of MacRay’s story. In comparison Coughlin’s tale has come full circle, hence the concept of whole and complete redemption for the character.
Elsewhere in The Town, Jon Hamm, most notable for his starring role in television’s Mad Men makes the leap to the big screen in a turn that impresses. His Adam Frawley, FBI agent and classic exemplar of the cinema G-Man results in Hamm’s presence definitely being felt on the big screen, although I don’t think anyone had any serious worries that he wouldn’t make the transition from mediums without success. Rebecca Hall turns in yet another great performance, with her love interest turned unintentional femme fatale providing a welcome punctuation point from the largely masculine display of action elsewhere in the picture, as does Blake Lively, apparently unrecognisable (although I personally wouldn’t recognise her anyway) as MacRay’s junkie ex-girlfriend. But for this viewer it was Titus Welliver, another veteran of American television (Deadwood, Lost) that sums up the quality of the character acting on display in The Town, here following up on his appearance in Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone with the sort of performance that makes one long for a greater respect for the actor.
When discussing the heist film one can’t help but look towards the greats of the 1940′s and 50′s, with the subgenre one of the major plot providers for Film Noir. The likes of John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Jules Dassin’s Rififi (1955) defined the genre, although it has proved to be one of the most malleable and temporally adaptable genres, with the likes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956), Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1991) and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven (2001) displaying how the concept of the heist genre has changed to fit the needs of its contemporary viewer. The Town resembles the earlier films mentioned rather than the post-modern likes of the latter, yet still manages to somehow feel fresh and exciting. Tonally and narratively The Killing is its closest comparison, although the manner in which that film is structured separates the two heavily. The sprawling nature of the manner in which The Town is relayed to the viewer reminds of another Dassin film, The Naked City (1948), with the combined clout of his Boston Trilogy hypothetically interweaving to create a portrait of the city vast in its representation. The films of James Gray also make for an apt reference point too, with Affleck’s brand of depicting the working class reminiscent of Gray’s distinct style.
If there has been one overt criticism levelled at The Town it is that it is too workman-like, that it is well constructed but ultimately very average. Similar aspersions are often cast at the more recent work of Clint Eastwood, with those striking the claims seemingly unaware of the difference between effortless and workman-like. You want emotion? This has it in the deconstruction of the life of the criminal. You want excitement? Inception aside I can’t recall an action scene as exciting as the car chase through the narrow streets of Boston on display here. The Town is one of the most strikingly effective films I’ve seen all year, its subtlety proving massively endearing, and its solid construction placing Affleck alongside the greatest of hopes for the modern American cinema.
< Message edited by adambatman82 -- 23/9/2010 8:58:19 PM >
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