***1/2 (three and a half stars)
Over the years, I have had this theory about the career trajectories of actors and best friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. It is not a revolutionary theory by any means but a thought I have had, which may even mirror some of your own. For quite some time, I have held this perception that Matt Damon’s desires leaned towards being and growing as an actor, learning the art of his craft, working with the top filmmakers and building a long-lasting body of work. Ben Affleck, on the other hand, was the handsome movie star who occasionally acted. Of course, this perception is unfair to both men, and especially so for Affleck, but their respective track records speak for themselves.
Damon has created a fine cinematic pedigree by having worked with no less than the very best while also carving out a large box office cache for himself. He has performed stellar work for Steven Spielberg (1998’s “Saving Private Ryan”), Clint Eastwood (2009’s “Invictus” and the upcoming “Hereafter”), Martin Scorsese (2006’s “The Departed”), Kevin Smith (1999’s “Dogma”), the late Anthony Minghella (1999’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley”) and Gus Van Sant (1997’s “Good Will Hunting,” which he co-wrote with Affleck). Beyond that, he has also been at the forefront of Steven Soderbergh’s trio of casino heist pictures (the “Ocean’s Eleven” series) as well as another little espionage series featuring the amnesiac character of Jason Bourne. Quite a feat.
As for Affleck, he started out strong as a featured player in excellent independent films like 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love” and the films of Kevin Smith, with 1997’s “Chasing Amy” a highlight. But then came a stream of forgettable action films (2000’s “Reindeer Games,” and 2002’s “The Sum Of All Fears”), romantic comedies (1999’s “Forces Of Nature” with Sandra Bullock) and two massively budgeted, overblown, repellent disasters from Director Michael Bay (1998’s “Armageddon” and 2001’s distasteful howler, “Pearl Harbor”). And then came the mighty (and again, unfair) fall as his highly publicized romance with a certain “Jenny From The Block” took its toll with the public’s tolerance, a tedium which extended itself with the equally high profile box office failures of Kevin Smith’s “Jersey Girl” (2004) and Martin Brest’s hugely maligned “Gigli” (2003). While Affleck proved he still possessed his acting chops with the excellent and underseen ”Changing Lanes” (2002), the damage had been done as critical perception about his talent had nosedived and the public simply showed no desire to watch him in anything.
As Damon continued to work steadily and gain accolades, Affleck vanished from view for a spell, presumably to lick his wounds and re-evaluate his career. The time away was indeed extremely well spent, as he began to creatively re-invent himself by taking on well-received supporting work in more independent features like “Hollywoodland” (2006). Most unexpectedly, Affleck took a bold step even further in his re-invention by carving out a new career as a Director, arriving with 2007’s “Gone Baby Gone” a superlative Boston-set thriller starring Affleck’s brother Casey Affleck, as a private detective searching for a missing four year old girl.
After that trip through the cinematic “Wayback Machine,” (thank you for your patience) we now arrive with Affleck’s second Directorial feature, the Boston-set crime drama “The Town,” a film so strong, so assured, so gripping and confident that it not only proves that Affleck’s first directing effort was no fluke but that Affleck is now a filmmaker to seriously watch closely.
“The Town” takes place in Charlestown, MA, an area of Boston historically known as a breeding ground for a variety of armed robbers, thieves, and career criminals. As the film opens, we are introduced to bank thief Doug MacRay (Affleck), leader and member of a veritable gang of four, which also includes the volatile and highly unpredictable James “Jem” Coughlin (an outstanding Jeremy Renner). The four man crew is meticulous in their capers as they not only have devised ways to quickly enter and exit the scenes of their crimes, but to also evaporate any traces of DNA evidence. Unfortunately, Jem is an unpredictable live-wire, as discovered during the film’s opening bank heist as he surprisingly takes a hostage, Claire Keesey, the bank manager (Rebecca Hall)-a dangerously unprecedented move which could potentially cost the crew their freedom.
During her brief capture, and unbeknownst to the thieves, Claire has spotted a tattoo on the back of Jem’s neck. Yet, unbeknownst to Claire, Jem has lifted her driver’s license, discovering that she lives in the same neighborhood as the thieves. After releasing Claire by a nearby beach, forcing her to walk blindfolded until she reaches the water’s edge, Jem desires to permanently extinguish any possibilities of their discovery and capture yet the more sympathetic Doug, who has immediately taken up an interest and attraction to Claire, pledges to handle it in his own way without anyone landing in mortal danger.
Doug then begins to stalk Claire, eventually orchestrating a “chance” meeting in a local Laundromat where he charms his way to a first date. As their relationship builds, Doug is confronted with a morass of conflicting emotions. As he achingly wrestles with the guilt and remorse of his vast list of crimes against his community and the woman he loves, he also struggles with the evasion of his teammate’s realization of his romance as well as attempting to escape capture from the doggedly tenacious FBI Agent Frawley (a blistering Jon Hamm), who has been covertly conferring with Claire. By this pivotal stage, the rampant consequences that stem from the film’s first bank heist are mounting and rapidly closing in on Doug. Certainly, there lies the great possibility that Claire, once realizing the truth about Doug, would not only end her relationship with him but also utilize the information of Jem’s tattoo to turn in all of the thieves to the feds. It is through the culmination of these events that Doug is forced to stare into the abyss that is the dark path of his life as he ponders the possibility of the ultimate escape and survival from Charlestown.
“The Town” is a sprawling experience weighted down firmly by Affleck’s complete commitment to the material. Obviously, he has more than enough to prove to himself, critics and audiences and it shows through the palpable yet controlled urgency on display. Due to the film’s subject matter, location and deeply complex characters with shifting allegiances and motivations, the comparisons between “The Town” and “The Departed,” while fair, are a little too facile as “The Town” has more on its mind than being a handsomely mounted (and absolutely brilliant) crime picture. The grand ambitions Ben Affleck has set for himself as a filmmaker are highly admirable as the aims of “The Town,” while providing a hefty dose of expertly executed action sequences, are decidedly more philosophical and investigative. In many ways, Affleck has positioned himself as a sort of “Chronicler of the Boston streets,” as with his previous film, “The Town” transcends its genre trappings by becoming a film about the Boston neighborhoods and its citizens.
Visually and thematically, Affleck has presented a rich canvas. In addition to those aforementioned bank heist sequences and sly nods to Scorsese’s “Mean Sreets” (1973) and “Goodfellas” (1990), “The Town” reminded me greatly of Director Michael Mann’s crime masterpiece “Heat” (1995), another film which delved deeply into the tragic inner lives and consequences of a collective of career criminals. However, Affleck sidesteps any notion of derivative retreads of familiar material to make this particular story all his own. For instance, we are shown a series of periodic overhead shots of Charlestown throughout the film, a technique which eventually suggests a horrific maze-like atmosphere, where all of the primary characters have been trapped and continue to consistently crash into one life-long dead end after another. It was fascinating to watch the characters portrayed by Affleck, Renner and Blake Lively (in a stunningly good performance as a drugged out Mom) exude a powerful self-awareness to their surroundings, pitfalls and sorrowful inevitability concerning their collective lots in life.
“The Town” also contains a brief image of a young child observing the four man crew, driving past while carrying automatic weapons and wearing grotesque nun masks is deeply chilling in and of itself. But Affleck does not stop there. That one image expertly conveys and lays the groundwork for the cycle of violence that has plagued the city and has become generational. This particular observation is physically embodied with two short yet intense portrayals by Pete Postlethwaite as the elder criminal still pulling the strings for Doug’s crew and Chris Cooper as Doug’s Father, the incarcerated elder criminal destined to die behind bars.
All of the film’s performances are first rate and now I must give credit to Affleck the director for eliciting one of the best performances I have seen to date from Affleck the actor.
For someone who seemed to be concerned with existing as a movie star, the character of Doug MacRay is makes for a darkly compelling, challenging and multi-layered anti-hero. Doug MacRay is, without apologies, a very bad man and no amount of soft-heartedness during the crimes he commits can change that fact. His pursuit of and romance with Claire is by turns, involving, romantic, creepy, sinister, passionate and earnest in its implicit desperation and Affleck hits every note with ease. Also, he delivers the confounding emotional juxtapositions of a man honestly falling in love in a relationship that is not only the definition of disingenuous but also has the dangerously close threat of violence hanging precariously all around them, especially Claire in particular. I somehow found myself in the strange position of actually rooting for Doug and Claire to succeed as I was also hoping Claire would run as far as she could from him and the life and lies he leads.
Yet, underneath all of the deception, the relationship between Doug and Claire is astonishingly filled with a sense of hope as Claire, a woman who is not a native of Charlestown, represents for Doug a world outside of the only city and life he has ever known. And perhaps, it is a world he can race towards, if only he can circumvent capture or certain death or most devastating, becoming engulfed by his wounded soul. Affleck's broad shoulders, closely cropped hair, tattoos, and chiseled, rock hard physical attributes belie his character's emotional trauma. Simply stated, Doug MacRay's soul is not meant for a place like Charlestown. His eyes always look pained, haunted, and sometimes on the verge of tears. Despite the adult life he leads, he actually appears much like the six year old boy he once was and who once spent time wandering the streets of Charlestown for his Mother who abandoned him.
It is a performance that reminded me of past characters who also desired to transcend the environments from which they originated. Mekhi Phifer and Edward Norton from Director Spike Lee's "Clockers" (1995) and "25th Hour" (2002), respectively, quickly emerge. Yet, what came to mind most frequently for me was John Travolta's riveting turn as Tony Manero in Director John Badham's iconic "Saturday Night Fever" (1977), a film that is much more serious and grim than is typically remembered to be. All of those film feature troubled young men playing their parts in violent worlds they just didn’t have the heart for while pleading for a second chance.
Perhaps, this is partially what drew Ben Affleck to this material in the first place as this film represents the crucial next stage in his re-invention, his personal second chance with his film career and the critical and public respect he hopes to achieve. Although, “Gone Baby Gone” contained even more of an emotional vice-grip for me than this film, that is a minor quibble. "The Town" is an extremely well executed, well thought and conceived thriller that contains more than enough substance to share with the action sequences. It is an adult film told in a mature, intricate and minutely observed fashion that should hopefully serve to elevate the status and respect for Ben Affleck in Hollywood and beyond.
He deserves the second chance.
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