The Town

February 4, 2012 - Bank robbery and love prove a deadly mix in this 2010 drama from writer/director/star Ben Affleck. Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and Rebecca Hall co-star. The movie is based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan.

The movie's title refers to Boston's Charlestown section. It's a decidedly blue collar neighborhood which, as we learn right off the bat, is a breeding ground for bank robbers. Doug MacRay (Affleck) is one of them. His four-man crew includes James Coughlin (Renner), and they have their act down cold.

One morning, they don masks and hit a bank where Claire Keesey (Hall) is the manager. MacRay, in as nice a way as possible considering he has a gun pointed at her, talks her through opening the safe. But, before the crew can get away, Coughlin decides to bash the assistant manager in the head and take Keesey as a hostage.

Skip ahead, and it turns out that Keesey is a Townie herself, so there's a chance she might recognize MacRay and company. MacRay says he'll "take care of it." In the course of taking care of it, he falls for her. She falls for him, too, which causes problems for everyone involved – especially FBI agent Adam Frawley (Hamm).

Overall review: *** Not much to complain about here. The cast is good, the acting is good and Affleck resists the urge to go for the easy ending. The Town is not great, but it's pretty darn good.