Many have been making the inevitably cliche comparisons of The Town to Michael Mann’s crime epic Heat, but the one big difference many aren’t talking about: the love story in The Town actually works. It’s the heart of the film, which is far more emotionally engaging than most heist films.
The funny thing about The Town is how formulaic it sounds. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, has a nice-guy bank robber named Doug at the center of it (Ben Affleck), who falls for the woman (Rebecca Hall) he held up in the opening scene. He’s looking to do one last job, and even an array of other small details such as Doug’s father being in jail to having a hothead for a best friend all sound like tropes we don’t really need or want to see again. And yet with all those cliches here, none of them feel overly familiar or horribly generic. Affleck’s taken a very familiar formula and has given us one of the best versions of it. Only until the final moment does it feel tired, the ending itself a bit rushed and doesn’t pack the emotional punch that it should.
The tug of war between thief Doug and F.B.I. agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) isn’t the highlight of the film actually, or even the main focus of the story. It’s the relationship between Doug and Claire (Hall) that comes to the forefront. Again, this romance could easily have been silly and eye-rolling inducing, but it couldn’t be further from it. It holds weight. You believe Doug would fall for her and that she would fall for him, and that she would wanna stick with him after discovering his “secret.” There’s not a single false moment between the two.
As for Hamm, he’s as excellent as you expect him to be. He has a tough and strong screen presence that makes him the perfect anti-antagonist. If anything is wrong with Frawley, like many films that show the law side of things, is that he’s never played as a genuine good guy. He’s by no means comes off as the villain or a bad guy, but you wish Affleck would play up the fact he’s doing his job and also the right thing. It’s understandable that Affleck wants you to cheer for Doug to succeed at the end, but it strips Frawley away of any sympathy and it feels like Affleck sugar coats the dynamic a bit too much. Hamm still manages to make it work though, and you kind of end up liking Frawley for his cockiness and almost brute nature.
Sadly, the same cant be said for Blake Lively. Lively plays a junky who Doug has a fling with. She also happens to be Doug’s best friend Jem’s (Jeremy Renner) sister. The main issue isn’t Lively’s performance so much as her lack of a character. She’s a plot device. She could be cut out of the film entirely and not much would be different, save for how she plays into the film’s climax.
Lastly, Renner must be mentioned. Renner doesn’t play James as a total greed-hound nor as an idiot as it is with most cases. He comes off both dangerous and loyal. Even when acting almost insane, Renner keeps a sense of grounding and even a bit of sympathy, which is no easy feat considering what you see him do in the film. He should come off despicable, and yet you come away feeling bad for him. He’s surprisingly not the typical right-hand man goon.
Affleck is both extremely competent both in-front and behind the camera. It’s an excellent performance as well as a strong follow-up to his very promising debut, Gone Baby Gone. Affleck has a great sense of both drama and tension, leaving behind no dull moment to speak of. The Town is both highly entertaining and an engaging, well-crafted drama.