The Town (2010)

The Town is something of a surprise.  At first, one would expect it to be on the lines of another late summer action movie, looking to make one more quick buck before the season ends.  However, upon closer inspection, even before seeing the movie, it has potential to be a great film.  With a cast that includes Jeremy Renner (Academy Award nominee for Best Actor in The Hurt Locker (2009)), Jon Hamm (multiple Emmy Award Nominee for Best Actor in a Drama Series for Mad Men (2008, 2009, 2010), and Chris Cooper (Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor in Adaption (2002)) you can't really go wrong.  I guess Ben Affleck won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting (1997) too. 

The movie's main characters are a group of friends who work together to rob banks and armored trucks.  The one thing all of these men have in common is that they're all from Charlestown, Massachusetts, a town that only seems to produce criminals.  Surprisingly enough The Town manages to deliver not only in action, but also in drama and suspense as well.  None of the car chases or shoot outs try to distract you from the poor acting or the uninteresting plot.  The plot doesn't focus on one big bank job much like other movies of its type, but rather focuses more on the intense development and interactions of characters, the most explosive being that between the rational thinking  Ben Affleck and the hot headed Jeremy Reener.  Every bit of the movie plays its part and plays it well.  Dialogue scenes are just as suspenseful and interesting as the action ones.  Furthermore, not only the big names, but the smaller ones carry their weight.  Blake Lively in particular does a great job of pulling herself out of her typical teeny-bopper persona from Gossip Girl and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005) by conveying some real raw emotion.  Jon Hamm in the beginning feels out of place among the slew of Boston accents, but manages to really standout as an anti-hero.  In fact, in an interview with Jon Stewart he even mentions that after the premier of The Town an old Boston woman used as a speech coach for the movie said, "I don't know if you played your part too well or what... but I don't like you."

While The Town as a whole is a surprise not only in plot but in acting, where it manages to be most surprising is with the directing.  Having only directed one film before (Gone Baby Gone (2007)), Ben Affleck does a surprisingly impressive job with The Town.  While none of the cinematography is incredibly impressive and doesn't necessarily do anything new or innovative, the opening heist scene as well as one of the later ones shows Affleck's courage as a director.  The shots are bold and setup some wonderful imagery, in particular one heist where the group robs an armored truck adorned with nun masks, something that manages to be haunting rather than comical, a scene that will linger with you after leaving the theater.  The movie draws you in and is absolutely enticing throughout.  While there's no definite chance Jeremy Renner will be getting a second Oscar nomination from this film, its definitely a film he can be proud of.  If there's one last movie you see this summer, it should be The Town.