The Town

It's only natural to compare The Town with 2007's Gone Baby Gone. Both were crime dramas set in Boston and directed by Ben Affleck that were based on pre-existing fictional stories. Actually, it's easy enough to compare both movies to several other recent films in the emerging "Boston crime drama" subgenre. In a way, The Town felt like a combination of many of those movies, borrowing - probably unintentionally, but still noticeably - memorable elements from several contemporary classics. From The Departed, there were gangsters dressed as cops, there was a shootout with a very high body count at the film's climax, and there was a talent-laden big name cast. From The Boondock Saints, there was a heavily-enforced theme of the loyalty and brotherhood that comes from growing up in blue collar Irish neighborhoods in the city. The generally dark tone, particularly with regard to apathetic parents doing a shitty job raising their children, was reminiscent of both Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River, and there's a romance element that bears striking resemblance to the one in Good Will Hunting. (Admittedly, that last one isn't a crime drama, but it's a Boston-based Ben Affleck movie all the same.) Throw in the expected over-the-top accents and sports references - yeah, there's an obligatory Fenway Park scene - and at the end of the day the movie kind of lacks its own identity. It seems, quite simply, like an archetypal "Boston crime drama," which is exactly what it is. None of this is to say that The Town wasn't any good. It was. It ran a bit long at two and a half hours, but for the most part it held my attention, particularly in the second half, when many other too-long movies start to feel stale. I never came to appreciate or relate to two of the four members of the crew the movie focuses on, but I guess I didn't have to; the dynamic between Affleck, the group's conscientious and lately reluctant leader, and Renner, the hotheaded wild card, was strong enough to bear the weight of the film's brotherhood and camaraderie themes. Elsewhere, Jon Hamm and Blake Lively turned in fine performances even if those particular casting decisions didn't make a whole lot of sense beyond getting some big names onto the movie poster. All things considered, this was a well-made movie, but a non-essential one. Chances are pretty good that you'll walk away from it satisfied, but you also probably won't feel profoundly moved or entertained. I wouldn't say that if you've seen one Boston crime drama you've seen them all, but I'd actually invert that claim here and say that if you've seen them all, you've seen this one. Affleck's work behind the camera is admirable, but if you're only going to watch one movie he directed, stick with Gone Baby Gone.