Rental: The Town

THE TOWN

Director: Ben Affleck

Writers: Ben Affleck, Peter Craig, Aaron Stockard

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively.

Boston, Massachusetts is the crime capital of the world. Or so The Town tells you in the start titles. Charlestown, to be precise, is the place where the most bank robberies occur every year. Doug (Affleck) is one of these bank robbers. After he and his gang of thieves rob a Cambridge bank, they take a female employee (the ever-so-brilliant Rebecca Hall) hostage. After they release her, she meets with FBI agent Adam Frawley (Hamm, of Mad Men fame) and the hunt is on. Things get sticky, though, when Doug falls for the very woman he kidnapped.

Just to start off, I must confess- I absolutely loathe Ben Affleck as an actor. I actually didn't watch his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, so I wasn't so sure my hatred towards him would extend to behind the camera. After watching The Town, I was quite impressed. Sure, it's nothing outstanding, but he does do a good job. Even still, he can't act for nuts.

The rest of the cast (excepting a almost undecipherable, overwrought Blake Lively) do a great job, expecially Rebecca Hall. I've always liked her acting skills- she milked her wife role in The Prestige for all it was worth (which was a good thing), and showed great chemistry with Martin Sheen in Frost/Nixon. Here she displays a great range of skills, pulling off her role with grace and subtlelty. Cameos by the always welcome Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite as Doug's estranged father and a gun toting florist, respectively, are also nice touches.

There are some scenes of genuine suspense, although they are few and far between. For the most part, this is a run-of-the-mill action with not too much gore and instead a bit of intelligence and wit. As with most films of this genre, there is a level of implausability, but The Town is much easier to bear than most.

The bottom line: A fun, sometimes thrilling action that missteps with some bad casting decisions and cliches.

7/10