Affleck takes a complicated turn as main man in ‘The Town’
There has been a lot of buzz around Ben Affleck’s latest
project,
”
The Town.
”
While I didn’t read any reviews about the movie before seeing it
last weekend, it was hard to miss the magazine articles and
internet headlines. The word on the street
– or at least in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly – is
that Affleck is hoping
”
The Town
”
will establish him as a real Hollywood player after some
missteps in his career (such as
”
Gigli.
”
)
Affleck takes a complicated turn as main man in ‘The Town’
There has been a lot of buzz around Ben Affleck’s latest project, “The Town.” While I didn’t read any reviews about the movie before seeing it last weekend, it was hard to miss the magazine articles and internet headlines. The word on the street – or at least in People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly – is that Affleck is hoping “The Town” will establish him as a real Hollywood player after some missteps in his career (such as “Gigli.”)
It was hard not to go into the theater with some high expectations. I personally have never been a big fan of Affleck’s acting, but I liked the 2007 film he directed, “Gone Baby Gone,” in which his brother Casey Affleck had a starring role. The movie, about a missing 4-year-old, was a complicated tale with many characters, including two private investigators, detectives, the missing child’s family members and neighborhood folks.
Affleck’s directorial follow-up is also set in Boston, in a hard neighborhood known as Charlestown. The movie begins with some quotes on the screen about how more bank robbers and armored truck thieves come from Charlestown than anywhere else in the world. It’s the perfect setting for Affleck’s heist movie. But this film is more than a typical heist movie – it has a lot more soul than most.
Affleck’s Doug MacRay is the most complicated character in the film. He is the central character in the film and viewers slowly learn more about him. Doug is the leader of a crew of four who have taken down a few armored cars and two banks. The movie opens with their latest robbery. They attack in masks so no one can identify them. They destroy video footage so no one can see them. They bring guns, but have no intention of using them.
Something goes wrong in the latest heist, however, and the quartet ends up taking a hostage. James Coughlin (played by Acadmy-Award nominee Jeremy Renner) is the one who brings Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), the bank manager, with them when they flee the scene. They don’t harm her, but he threatens to kill her if she goes to the FBI.
After the robbery, Albert Magloan ( Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke) are concerned about the kidnapping. Magloan is the driver and in charge of the getaway cars. Desmond works for a local telecomm company and knows how to cut video feed, as well as a few other technical things. But neither of them wants to get involved in kidnapping.
Coughlin, who held onto Claire’s driver license, is concerned when he realizes she lives just a few blocks from them. He wants to intimidate her to make sure she doesn’t talk with the FBI. Doug, however, offers to find out how much Claire knows. Coughlin has two strikes against him already, having served nine years for murder, and Doug doesn’t want him to get in trouble for witness tampering, too.
Doug follows Claire for a few days, learning her routine. He finds a way to bump into her when she goes to the Laundromat. She is still vulnerable from the kidnapping and he finds an easy in as a nice guy who lightens the air with a few jokes. She agrees to have a drink with him.
Claire is not from Charlestown and she is open from the start with Doug about where her mind is when he picks her up for their date. She tells him about being taken hostage. She even tells him about talking with FBI special agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm.) She says he has no suspects in mind.
The flipside of the film is Frawley’s search for the suspects. He’s been tracking the suspects since the beginning, but they don’t leave behind any clues. Hamm’s Frawley is less likeable than the criminal he is chasing. He manipulates those close to the suspects to get the information he needs to catch them.
Doug is a complicated character, and he is likely to leave viewers feeling torn between empathy for him and disappointment. As he spends time with Claire, more is revealed about his past. He had a rough upbringing – his mom left when he was 6. His dad went to prison. It’s easy to see why Doug resorted to crime. But he had a chance to get out of it once and he blew it. As Doug spends more time with Claire, he is reluctant to carry out more jobs, especially knowing that the Feds are keeping close tabs on them. But things aren’t as easy as Doug just saying no to the next job. He wants a second chance to start over, but as the climax of the film approaches its hard not to question if he really deserves it.
The cast is rounded out by Pete Postlethwaite as an old Irish florist who is not as benign as he seems, Chris Cooper as Doug’s father, and Blake Lively as James’ sister and Doug’s on-again off-again girlfriend. The actors all have small roles in the film, meant to reveal something new about Doug or force him to action, and I wish they’d had more screen time to develop their motives.
