K-SCORE: 31
Director: Ben Affleck
Writer: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig
“Ick.”
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively
Spoiler Level: Major
The critical acclaim for The Town back in 2010 and 2011 confuses me. There have been worse films I’ve seen recently, but many of those are somehow more enjoyable than this miscreation of a crime thriller.
The narrative hinges on Affleck’s character being somewhat likable and his relationship to the bank manager he and his other Boston thugs rob at gunpoint at the beginning being believable, and it totally fails in both regards. I’m supposed to somehow like and relate to this violent thief just because he draws the line at murder? Juxtaposing him with Renner’s character, a genuine psychopath, doesn’t make him an angel; it doesn’t even stop him from being a piece of shit. He’s a run of the mill dickhead, as selfish in his thieving aspirations as he is in his relationships. To make matters worse, he gets away scot-free at the end, with the tone of the film applauding this conclusion as if it’s morally acceptable. Ick.
This isn’t an Ocean’s Eleven style heist movie. The criminals have plans, but they’re essentially running into banks with masks on, pointing guns, beating people up, and fleeing with cash. The most complex it gets is at the end where their scheme includes the use of a stolen ambulance. I could have come up with something better. You know how I know? I did. Hide the money at the end somewhere in Fenway Park and go to the game, shuffling out with the crowd. Return and take the money out little by little over the course of a year or two. You can’t spend it all at the same time anyway. So if you’re looking for masterful criminals and their compelling crimes with dedicated detectives hunting them, look elsewhere. Also, Affleck, a devoted Bostonite, seems to have created a story that craps all over that city. The 3.5 million at the end is stolen from one of the most beloved baseball stadiums in our country and given to… a bank teller with PTSD.
Crappy characterization, the plodding plotting of imbeciles, and an unremarkable filmic style - I just don’t get it. Others compared this film with Heat and The Boondock Saints, films that actually have something meaningful to say and say it well, while being more entertaining in the process. No one is going to be rewatching this years down the line. In order for me to appreciate a story about a thief who falls in love with someone he robs, I have to either like the thief, recognize that he’s changed his ways, believe that he’s atoned, see that he’s paid for his misdeeds, or feel charmed by the romance. Ideally some combination of those. None of that happens in The Town. I wished he’d just gotten tossed in prison almost as much as I wished I was watching something better.
Addendum: This film is right in the post- Hurt Locker meaty part of Jeremy Renner’s perplexing career. He delivers non-developing, unrealistic, non-compelling performances in films with broken narratives time and time again, and laps up praise for it. Renner must have caught some Hollywood puppet-master snorting cocaine off a dead prostitute back in 2008 for him to be getting this much good publicity and work.