‘The Town’ Review: They Run This Town

They not only run the robberies in our fair city, but they own the badass nun look. Poster from Warner Bros. Studios.

Who runs this Town? Ben Affleck apparently wants to. He, along with Martin Scorsese, are hell-bent on depicting Boston as the sequel to New York City’s gritty Times Square of the early eighties. Junkies, hookers, and robbers galore! Now all we need is a taxi driver and a raging bull.

But is a portion of “Bennifer II” ready to ascend to the throne of a revered director? I don’t think we’re there just yet.

The Town has twice the violence but half the heart and emotional tug of Ben’s last ode to Boston townies, Gone, Baby, Gone. There’s an attempt at romance here, which is much simpler (read as: dumbed down) than the one in Ben’s first film. The level of loyalty the merry band of thieves have for one another never waivers, even in the face of the F.B.I. Family, friends, and relationship drama feels overwhelming at times, creating havoc on the psyches of the characters and of the audience. I will give credit where credit is due, though: apart from his cutup Boston accent, Ben Affleck manages to pull off a pretty decent protagonist. His character, Doug, has made mistakes in the past and realizes in order to get out of The Town he needs to leave his painful past behind him. He’s a sympathetic, tragic character, and the audience is sure to want to give the good guy, wrong place scenario a second chance at making things right.

Yet it’s his best bro in the gang who has him pinned to the game. For personal reasons, Jim wants Doug to never leave the group. That’s the danger of gangs and cliques: once you’re in, you never get out. Despite the fact that his motives are the most obvious (and the most bloodthirsty), I enjoyed his manic character. Jim’s caustic violence confronts Doug’s calculated coolness to induce more conflict. Mere men in a bloodbath dost not a movie make, so we have lady friends and special lady friends involved. Mainly an addict with a baby (sound familiar Gone, Baby, Gone fans?) and a victim of a violent robbery are the women in Doug’s life. Sadly, neither of them is given much time to develop beyond my three word descriptions. But I may just be looking for reasonable thoughts in an action movie. Silly me, I should pay more attention to the shaky camera shots.

Half of the appeal of The Town is how damn touristy it feels. For claiming to be such a Bruins-wearing local’s shout out, Ben spent an awful lot of time focused on the Bunker Hill Memorial, the Zakim Bridge, and Postcard-esque time lapses of the city skyline. The Citgo sign, Harvard Square, and the North End are given pretty ample time for a movie focused on Charlestown. I half expected one of the heists to include a Duck Tour or at least a run through Faneuil Hall. I did get excited when a place I commuted through or been past came on screen. Perhaps it’s some sort of new-found hometown pride? Yet this too was used against the audience.  Part of the reason why I felt spooked walking past the darkened Yawkey Way was all the violent screen time given to Fenway Park on a game against some other New York team. However, I take it that the Sox won because New York is no longer the roughest, toughest city on the East Coast. The world is right once more, with the exception of Charlestown of course.

Back to the biggest draw for the movie: the violence. Not since The Dark Knight have American audiences seen heists by men in clown masks. Yes, it’s creepy, and why on God’s dear sweet earth are they using a deformed nun’s mask for a raid on the North End?  Flying blood and bullets alert: there’s a lot of that in this movie. Expect it as much as any f-bomb.

To be fair, simple characters and crime family drama does play out nicely for an action movie. It keeps your interests invested and moves quickly. Some may have complained that Gone, Baby, Gone unraveled a tad too slow, and gray-haired Ben has since hurried his pace. However, one serious drawback of the film lies in its multiple pop culture references. Funny now, but in a few fair years, no one may know what Skype is and the humor is lost. Think about the eighties comedies in which you had to ask a parent what Dynasty was. Also, the Boston accents are yours for the interpretation. Either you are used to them, or they slur their words through the muck of the bottom of the Charles for much too long and you need subtitles.

On a lighter note, all the major Boston-based teams received walk-on credits. The Bruins even received a hefty double representation from Ben himself.  Except the Patriots, they clearly aren’t from the town.

Fast-paced action, little thinking, and some good listening skills are all that is required to enter “The Town.”  Besides, it’s fun to figure out what T station are they at now : B-

About Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo (CAS '11) is a Film writer for the Quad. Drawn into the world of film studies accidentally, she's continued on writing, writing, and writing about film since. She also co-writes on another blog, http://beyondthebacklot.wordpress.com/, which is about even geekier film stuff. If you have the time, she would love to watch a movie with you.

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