Directed by: Ben Affleck
Screenplay: Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner...
Background and insight:
I wanted to see this film from the moment I watched the trailer. Now I’ve been watching films/movies for as long as I have any visual memories and I know how easy it can be to make a film look good in a trailer. But the trailer for the Town contained all the elements of a great film. This was the difficult 2nd film for Ben Affleck. Gone Baby Gone was received well on release although it did get caught up is a small amount of controversy because of the similarities in plot to the real world tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann. It proved to be a solid film, well written, well cast and well directed by Affleck. Critics then as critics do, started to suggest it was a fluke. What did Affleck do? He upped the stakes. This time with a bigger budget, much more ambitious plot and cast himself in the leading role. Not only that, but the trailer suggested action sequences to rival one of cinema’s finest heist movies, Heat. Affleck stars, directs and co-writes the film which this time is a big studio film with a modest budget of $37 million, of which from the film I watch, you get to see every cent on the screen.
I promised myself that some years ago that I would not analyze films on first watch, but just sit back and enjoy the ride, get lost in the story and characters. If I wasn’t able to do that anymore, I would give up writing and filmmaking first, as my passion for film has lasted a lifetime and I don’t want to lose my enjoyment of it. After studying every element of film and screenplay writing for the last eight years, this can sometimes be hard. But when a film is well made, you can’t help but get lost in the spectacle and The Town is one such film. If one was to sit down and deceit it, I’m sure you would find faults, but for me, I didn’t find the need. I became more interested in its merits rather than looking for its faults. I found Inception did trip me up during the school scene/conversation between Michael Caine and Leonardo Dicaprio’s characters as the scene was sheer exposition thrown in to fill in the blanks for the audience and I found myself think oh Chris (Nolan) you can’t be doing that now. This worried me regarding my further enjoyment of films. As it pulled me out of the story, but I didn’t find myself doing that watching the Town. In many ways it restored my faith.
Being a father of four young children, I do most of my movie watching at home, both because of finances as well as time. It takes a rare film to get me to go to the cinema and out of the comfort of my own home. Recent films that have tempted me have been disappointing, but I’ve found the frame of mind because of the novelty of the night out can affect you opinion of a film. Film is subjective and your state of mind can greatly affect your enjoyment level or willingness to get lost in a story. I was totally in the wrong frame of mind for the town. I had a couple of horrendous weeks, within a terrible year. I was tired, hell I was exhausted and the last place I wanted to be was the cinema. I was fed up with the doom and gloom, the impending Irish budget that was set to make people’s lives even harder, listening to politicians tell us what “we need” to do and I had just lost my job after 18 years, for no good reason other than narrow minded pocket economics. But as it turned out it made me forget for 2 hours and was exactly the story I wanted to see. It was a film, given the chance I would have wanted to write and even direct.
Characters and Cast:
Factoring all these elements you can’t help but feel this movie was going to fail on some level and it doesn’t. It doesn’t even trip. Containing a rock solid cast and I will put my neck out on this next statement. It contains for me one of three finest moments of understated acting in cinema history and all without a word of spoken dialogue. Firstly Viggo Mortensen in the History of violence where this actor portrays in one subtle expression change, a life time of rage and violence reborn in a single instant. Al Pacino in the godfather restaurant shooting, where Michael becomes everything he has fought to avoid, but no longer can. In the Town Affleck’s character, Doug, is caught having lunch with someone he shouldn’t be with (avoiding spoilers) by the last person he would want to catch him and in a few moments of non verbal acting, his face holds a serious of terrified expressions that we can’t help but feel his fear, fear the danger and fear the worst. He is not just acting terrified, he looks terrified. Even moments of dialogue hit very high notes. One in particular “ask me anything you want, I won’t believe you...Yes you will....Why?.... Because you’ll f$%king hate the answers” – brutal and simply excellent.
With our cinema screens and televisions simply saturated by vampires and comic book superheroes, it is a breath of fresh air to be given a film filled with real life people with real life problems. A hero who is a duck out of water. He belongs where he is but doesn’t. No longer drinks, can’t sleep and could have been a big ice hockey star, but the boy in him ruined the chance for the man he became.
Story and Plot
Based on a novel “The prince of thieves” , the story hooks you from the opening text “There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year. And a one-square-mile neighborhood in Boston, called Charlestown, has produced more bank and armored car robbers than anywhere in the U.S.” And then opens with an almost perfectly executed heist, with one mistake, they take a hostage and the plot is underway. We are dealing with next generation Boston/Irish criminals, where the family trade is robbing banks. Their work tools are automatic weapons and bullet proof vests. They are a law onto themselves and handle everything their way. They may be breaking the law, but they also enforce their own law, the law of the streets.
As the story unfolds we get to see more layers of Doug’s (Affleck) character and what makes him tick. Why he acts the way he does. These guys have grown up violently, it’s a way of life, a form of expression. They live by their own rules, make their own luck and act very much like modern day gun slingers. But eventually we know they must pay, some more then other’s. But the Protagonists and Antagonists of this story are not clearly defined as good and bad, or black and white. The characters in the town are more realistic, more true to life. Some just motivated by “Xbox and coke” others just wanting to win, or to live, to be happy. But all are scarred by their past, by their life’s. Even the FBI agent (and excellent Jon Hamm) chasing the crew is far from a good guy, he uses and manipulates people for his own gain, destroying other people’s lives to get what he wants. He doesn’t just want to bring the bad guys down, he wants to win, needs to win and god help anyone that gets in his way. He’s a criminal with a badge, hiding behind the power of his job. A symbol of twisted and corrupt power. It’s worth the price of admission to watch the interrogation between Hamm and Affleck, a conversation and threat that later comes back on the FBI agent in excellent style (no spoilers). Jeremy Renner and John Hamm, along with Affleck all play exceptional parts. With Renner being utterly convincing as the friend since childhood that might just turn on Doug at any moment and who he knows will be the death of him someday, but they are both extremely loyal to each other.
Action and visuals
The action scenes are well paced and allow the story to build upon its characters and plot, giving us well staged action when we need it. Extremely well shot and choreographed. Affleck and his DOP avoid the mistakes made by so many modern action directors, with the over use of camera work. They allow the action to breathe, which allows us to immerse ourselves in the moment. This is oul school film making filmed with modern technology and it’s all the better for it. If you have seen the Losers you will know what I mean, over use of freeze frames and camera use kill action scenes. In many respects Affleck manages to out heat “heat” and doesn’t rely on one or two action set pieces. We are taken on a number of heists with the crew, with the stakes increasing with each robbery. The robbery that goes wrong when James (Renner) refuses to listen to Doug’s recon advice, is extremely well filmed among the narrow streets that should never work for a car chase, but do. The action is also very well placed in the story. We open on one and get two more set pieces expertly placed in the films timeline to sustain interest and keep us hooked for the finale. The visit with his father in prison is particularly frightening not because of the portrayal of violence we usually see with prison life in films, but because Affleck shoots it wide, pulls back the camera and shows us the sheer solitude and loneliness of prison. This is one of the two places these men are heading to, either prison or death. This scene explains the moment where Renner’s character tells his friend he can’t go to prison and if they get jammed up, they’re “taking court on the streets”. That death is a better option than prison. We know what these guys are doing is wrong. But it’s a testament to acting, directing and writing to find ourselves wanting them to get away, to escape as Affleck says, “leave this whole town in his rear view”. But as the story unfolds, the odds become stacked against Doug, his chance of happiness, or a life seem to reduce by the minute.
Final thoughts
It ends the only was the story can and shows us we all live in prisons of some sort, some without bars and some with. A love story wrapped in a story of friendship, loyalty, crime and violence. A film that wears its heart on its sleeve, it was conceived and produced to entertain and succeeds on every level. Never pretending to be anymore than it is. At its heart it’s a heist movie wrapped in a love story that appears to be produced for no other reason than to entertain, like all good films should be. Granted if you wanted to nitpick, you could suggest it owes a lot to movies like Heat and Point Break, but I don’t think Affleck is pretending it doesn’t. Besides this was a similar argument people had regarding Avatar being a collection of Cameron’s own hits, Aliens, Terminator, Titanic, that Cameron was “playing it safe” and the story was pure “dances with Wolves” in space. Total rubbish, I loved Avatar and if people think they can do better, go write/direct your own. Believe me; it’s not as easy as you think. Nothing about Avatar was playing it safe, it was a massive gamble that paid off because a master film maker was at the helm. The reason I bring this up, well after watching the Town, another potential master film maker is on the rise. Ben Affleck, imagine suggesting that a few years ago when he was making poor John Woo movies and appearing in hair product adverts (the boy was obviously making/saving money and buying his time). He had already proved he could write when he bagged an Oscar for Good Will Hunting. That he could direct with Gone Baby Gone. The sceptics have doubted his acting ability, but not anymore (see above). With the town he showcased that he can do all three. So now he really has nothing left to prove and just provide us with more films and more solid A class entertainment.
While leaving the cinema I found myself thinking about the story and began wondering did Affleck play to our mind set in these present times in much the same way western’s had done during another great bank crisis and found myself smiling as indeed he had tapped into the frustration of a generation. I’d just watched a film about a man who has stopped playing by the rules and took it to the banks, our modern day real world villains and the power of the government/officials comes down on them to protect the banks money. But through his actions and events, took what he wanted and made a small change that politicians couldn’t for his long forgotten town. (again no spoilers as I feel too often reviews give away plot/story for no good reason than to fill space on a page).
It gripped me from the opening intro and kept me to the closing frames, always wanting to know “what will happen next”, which to me is the making of a classic film. My movie of the year for 2010, leaving films like inception in its wake and you don’t get better compliments than that. I rarely bother to write/talk so much about a film, so I guess it found me in the right/wrong frame of mind and I found myself having to write a review. A rare film that I immediately wanted to see again.
So if you have the funds and time, go to see the Town at your local cinema and see a film as they should be made, as they were once made, in Hollywood's glory days, before they became obsessed with brands, sequels and the new age sequel, the prequel. Don’t wait for the DVD/Blu ray release, go see it on the big screen, with no distractions or dreaded pause button.
No score from me I’m afraid, as I find myself no longer believing in rating a film that took someone a couple of years to conceived and complete. Giving a score out of five/ten just seems cruel, so go check out metacritic or IMDB if scores are your thing. But I feel they distract from the review.
Sean Ryan
13th October 2010
Seansshack@gmail.com
Writing résumé: http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanryan/Pages/resume.htm
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3741595/
Web: www.seansshack.com
RTE Radio Interview: http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhw5
Newspaper Article: http://www.munster-express.ie/entertainment/theatre/local-scriptwriter-celebrates-new-york-premier-of-film-%E2%80%98too-good-to-be-true%E2%80%99/
Email: seansshack@gmail.com
Sample Comedy Short: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1lzMX453O0&feature=feedu
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Screen writing articles: http://www.wix.com/filmcom/waterford-ways-home
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