Ben Affleck’s heist thriller earns its tension through clear action and a strong cast, with Jeremy Renner supplying the danger. The romance is more conventional, and the film gives its leading bank robber too much benefit of the doubt.
Ben Affleck’s The Town is a good heist thriller with a habit of being too kind to its leading man. The robberies are tense, the company is well chosen, and the Boston setting gives familiar criminal loyalties a convincing home. Its director wants us to care about Doug MacRay when the action stops, which is a reasonable ambition. He also wants us to accept Doug’s feelings as grounds for considerable leniency. He plays Doug MacRay himself.
Robert Elswit’s cinematography and Sharon Seymour’s production design give the Boston setting a persuasive familiarity. The surroundings feel lived in, which matters when so much of the drama depends on attachments that are difficult to break. Both do useful work establishing a place we can believe these people belong to. The polish occasionally becomes too attractive for a film asking us to take the damage done by these men seriously.
Dylan Tichenor’s editing is firmer about what needs our attention. The robberies move quickly without reducing the work to an indistinct rush, and the director understands how much tension comes from watching capable people carry out something dangerous. We were gripped, and caught ourselves wanting the robbers to get away. The concentration on the job itself makes that response almost automatic, which is disquieting when we stop to consider whom we are supporting. Enough of the practical detail survives the cutting for us to follow what the men are doing.
Jeremy Renner supplies the uncertainty that the action’s careful organisation needs. As James “Jem” Coughlin, he makes a hot-headed partner feel like someone whose next decision might become everybody else’s problem. Ben Affleck’s more restrained Doug MacRay gives him something solid to push against, and the difference between the performances keeps their scenes alert. The strain of dealing with Jem comes through without making Doug’s attachment to him look foolish. Their relationship is persuasive enough that we do not need the screenplay to keep pleading Doug’s case.
Rebecca Hall gives Claire Keesey an emotional credibility that the romance does not always earn. She is attentive and unforced, and the connection with Doug has enough warmth to explain why the film spends time on it. The screenplay by Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard nevertheless leans too heavily on the idea that a criminal’s capacity for tenderness should settle our doubts about him. We can understand the attraction and still want a harder look at his behaviour. The familiar sentimental passages feel particularly convenient beside the more exacting work of the robberies.
Jon Hamm is welcome as FBI S.A. Adam Frawley because he brings an opposing authority into a film inclined to favour Doug. His presence helps prevent the pursuit from becoming a purely personal complaint against a misunderstood man. The music by Harry Gregson-Williams and David Buckley is effective at maintaining urgency, less helpful when it presses the romantic feeling. The quieter performances already make those exchanges matter, and the extra encouragement can feel unnecessary.
The Town does not find much new in the capable criminal who might deserve another life, and its confidence can conceal how familiar the writing is. As a heist film, though, it understands the pleasure of a difficult job performed under pressure and gives its supporting actors room to complicate the man at the centre. That is enough for a worthwhile evening if crime thrillers are your preference. See it for Jeremy Renner and the robberies, and be prepared to forgive the romance more readily than we did.
