This settles it. With the release of The Town, the gritty Boston crime drama is officially its own genre, comprised of such films as The Departed, Mystic River, and The Boondock Saints. The main reason The Town stands apart, as the newest member in this still young family of films, is that it has the dubious honor of being the first of its kind to feel cliché.
This isn’t to say that The Town is a bad movie. It’s actually hugely entertaining. But it feels too “paint-by-numbers.” The story revolves around Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck, who also co-wrote and directed), a disarmingly charismatic criminal who’s looking to score one last job before he gets out of the game for good. His hot-tempered partner in crime (Jeremy Renner) puts them both in danger when his violent outbursts lands them on a single-minded detective’s radar. And of course, there’s the dame (Rebecca Hall), an innocent, high-society love interest who represents the world outside crime. Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve seen Heat… or The Italian Job… or The Departed.
The Town finds success in the way it balances its ingredients. The heists are gritty, quick, and tense, and the sense of claustrophobia and speed in the chase scenes is remarkable. And even though the film is populated by archetypes, the strong cast makes their cookie-cutter characters less trite than they would be otherwise. Renner’s loose cannon is especially good. He brings a kind of controlled hysteria that makes him much more terrifying than the average Boston thug.
The Town is Affleck’s second time in the director’s seat, and while it doesn’t pack the same punch as 2007’s Gone Baby Gone, it does prove that his first film’s success was no fluke. Affleck has a good sense of pacing and an eye for striking imagery. And while he may just be drawing on his own upbringing to recreate a world he understands, you can’t deny that on some level, it works. Unfortunately, though, when “painting-by-numbers,” you can only do so much by staying within the lines.
