The Town: Nuns with machine guns

Plot:

As he plans his next job, a longtime thief tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down.

Lets be honest. Ben Affleck has been in some stinkers over the years. These include 'Gigli' known as one of the worst films of all time, the historical car crash that was Pearl Harbour and Kevin 'Clerks' Smith's Jersey Girl. Affleck's performances in these films gained him various unwanted Raspberry nominations and made his brother seem like Laurence Olivier in comparison. Could this be blamed on the media's creation of the 'Bennifer' phenomenon? Who knows. The better question is has he learned and improved?

In recent years, Ben Affleck directed and wrote the screenplay of the fantastic Gone Baby Gone in which his brother Casey shines again but what that film prove is that there really is substance to Ben Affleck. That film showed a knack for direction and storytelling which there were glimpses of in his first screenplay, Good Will Hunting. 

The first thing to say is that The Town does not have a script like that of Gone Baby Gone. The premise is one that has been seen before, most notably from Heat, Michael Mann's cold classic. The influence of Heat is evident throughout the film, from the hard-nosed, yet extremely likeable supposed villains to the bullet-ridden, car chases. There are two notable differences, in Heat there isn't a clear good and evil, whereas in The Town, Pete Postlethwaite proves how an evil Irish gangster can still be scary. 

The other film that the Town owes a debt to is Point Break, where presidents masks and surfers were the fashion. This film is not Point Break or Heat. It is predictable and you can see most of it coming...However, it is thoroughly entertaining, it keeps you interested and it offers something different from what we have seen for quite some time in the form of heist movies. What it proves is that Ben Affleck has it. He has the ability to become an even better director but this is a well directed film, it does everything, it moves in all the right directions. The film is technically sound, from the sped up Boston skyline at the beginning, to the final narration. The characters make the film so watchable, at times Jeremy Renner overshadows Affleck and and Rebecca Hall which is not a bad thing.

However predictable, the film really keeps you, overly long but who cares, I think Affleck deserves a break and The Town will surely deliver that. 

4/5