Review: The Fighter (B+)

There's a reason David O. Russell's latest is called The Fighter instead of The Boxer (well, besides the fact that that title was taken). It's not just a movie about a boxer; it's about one man and three pivotal people in his life, and any of them could be the fighter of the title. They fight opponents, each other, their circumstances and their own worst instincts. On its face, the film is the fact-based story of "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), an aspiring boxer in Lowell, Mass. Micky's trainer is his half-brother Dickie Ecklund (Christian Bale), once the "pride of Lowell" for knocking out Sugar Ray Leonard (who cameos as himself), now a cadaverous crack addict who nonetheless keeps up a stream of chatter to rival a high school debate team. He's managed by his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), a micromanaging Diet Lady Macbeth who is constantly trailed by her seven daughters (one of whom- Fun Fact- is played by Conan O'Brien's sister). Preparing for a fight in Atlantic City that gives him a shot at the big time, Micky meets Charlene (Amy Adams), a barmaid who thinks his family is doing his life and career more harm than good; she's seemingly vindicated when Micky takes a spectacular beating after his opponent doesn't show and Dickie and Alice coerce him into fighting a much bigger replacement. Charlene attempts to help Micky make it on his own terms (TM), which unfortunately coincides with Dickie hitting bottom, not only landing in prison after a fight with the cops, but realizing that the HBO crew, ostensibly filming a documentary about his "comeback", have actually been documenting his worsening drug addiction. As Micky starts winning again, he's faced with a choice between not only family and Charlene, but his dream and the moral obligation he feels to take care of Dickie.
First things first, Bale is every bit as phenomenal as everyone says; he spent the latter half of the 2000s in a lot of roles that didn't allow him much emotional range, but this performance reminds us that the guy did, after all, play Patrick Bateman. On the one hand, Dickie's addiction makes him alternately infuriating and pitiful; on the other hand, we see how, even at his lowest, he's still got a lot of natural charm to fall back on, as in a brilliant little scene when Alice drags him from the crackhouse he floats in and out of and he calms her by singing the Bee Gees' "I Started a Joke" as they drive away. The Oscar is already all but his for this. Leo is great too, essentially playing an American, slightly nicer version of Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom. Adams is especially revelatory, and she might be Oscar-bound too: they clearly already love her, they also love deliberately de-glammed performances, and, oh yeah, it's a damn good performance, too.
Wahlberg's performance has been dismissed as the weaker of the four, but I think that's a misinterpretation; sure, it's understated comparatively, but that's who Micky Ward is in the context of the story. He's a reactive character, which is why it's compelling to watch him pursue his dream, because simply going with what's best for him is not something he really knows how to do. I had similar thoughts on Naomi Watts' performance as Valerie Plame in Fair Game; it's not underacting, it's just the nature of the character to be less flashy than those around them.
Russell, of Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees, does a great job of directing (despite some disconcertingly anachronistic musical choices), particularly the fight scenes, shot deliberately in the grainy style of early '90s HBO fights; Micky's final fight in London with Liverpudlian Shea Neary is a wonder to behold. The Fighter is a great story told well, and pulls off something hard: it takes four regular people and the lives they lead and shows us exactly why we should give a shit.

Tom Hardy cast in unspecified role in Chris Nolan's third "Batman"

British character actor Tom Hardy (pictured above with rapist tattoo), who proved what a formidable talent he was with 2009's Bronson and got a major push into the mainstream with his scene-stealing in Christopher Nolan's Inception this year, has now joined the cast of Nolan's sequel to The Dark Knight, according to Deadline. No one knows what role he'll be playing, but it's not unreasonable to think it'll be the villain, the identity of whom is still anyone's guess (although given Hardy's skill at playing wiseasses, I'd guess the Riddler if it came down to it). Filming is set to begin next spring for a summer '12 release.

Trailer for Peter Weir's "The Way Back"

Earlier in the year, six-time Oscar nominee Peter Weir's The Way Back, a true story of several escapees from the Soviet gulag who managed to walk from Siberia to India, was being looked at very closely as an Oscar contender, both in terms of its direction and its phenomenal cast, including, among others, Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saiorse Ronan and Colin Farrell. Then it was announced that despite its prestige, the film would not be released until January, which is pretty much a bullet in the head for reasonable Oscar hopes. Then, earlier this week, it was announced that the film would have a one-week qualifying run at the end of December, and today a trailer has been released, which doesn't showcase too much of the acting but is heavy on the gorgeous-looking direction and cinematography. Given his longtime "always a bridesmaid" status at the Oscars, I've heard rumblings about this being Ed Harris' big break if the movie can make enough of a splash, so we'll see.

New poster and trailer for Danny Boyle's "127 Hours"

After Danny Boyle's resounding Oscar triumph two years ago with Slumdog Millionaire, he's almost assuredly got another darling on his hands with his latest, the James Franco-starring 127 Hours. The film, which received raves on the festival circuit for Boyle's direction and Franco's performance (and also reportedly caused at least one panic attack), is the story of rock-climber Aron Ralston, who found himself trapped beneath a boulder in the mountains of Utah and was forced to hack off his own hand to escape. ANYWAY, now we've got not only a striking, minimalist new poster for the film, but an extended trailer, which showcases what looks to be a phenomenal performance from Franco (although c'mon, "of all time"? Give it some time to give it context, Kanye West-sounding film critic whose name I didn't catch), as well as what looks like a neat narrative conceit to deal with the fact that it's essentially a one-man show. 127 Hours opens on November 5th; here's the trailer.

Utterly unnecessary "The Secret in Their Eyes" Americanization in the works

Billy Ray, writer of State of Play and its fellow quality journalism drama Shattered Glass, has been tapped to write and direct an Americanized remake of 2009's Argentine Best Foreign Language Film winner The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos), an edgy crime thriller I am ashamed to admit I've never seen. I have to say this seems completely needless, and part of the latest Hollywood alternative to original ideas, remaking good movies for people who think subtitles are, like, totally gay. (Yes, Let Me In was surprisingly good, but I'm still not entirely convinced there was any reason it needed to be made) In contrast to the original's late '90s setting, Ray's remake will be set in the present, as well as in America, due to the relative lack of A-list Argentine-American actors.

Emma Stone cast as Gwen Stacy for some reason

This weekend, I reported that funnier, less insane Lindsay Lohan robot Emma Stone had been offered the role of the similarly-tressed Mary Jane in Marc Webb's reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. Now according to The Playlist, Stone, who, scandalously, is a natural blond, has been instead offered the role of earlier Spider-Man fling Gwen Stacy, who, aside from being played by a mostly wasted Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3, is probably most famous for SPOILERS!!!!!! getting dumped off a bridge to her death by the Green Goblin*. Stone's a good enough actress that I'm not too bothered by this; given the movie's apparent back-to-basics approach, it's possible, if not entirely probable, that it will eschew Mary Jane entirely, since she wasn't actually introduced until several years into the comic.



*And also that time several decades later when it was "revealed" that Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin's civilian identity, had seduced her and impregnated her with twins. This was every bit as awful as it sounds.

Badass new full "True Grit" trailer

After last week's shorter teaser trailer, today we get a full trailer from Yahoo! Movies
for the Coen Brothers' hotly anticipated adaptation of Charles Portis' True Grit, this time giving us a better look at Jeff Bridges' Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon's Texas ranger LaBoeuf, and Josh Brolin's villainous fugitive murderer Tom Chaney, as opposed to the greater emphasis on newcomer Hailee Steinfeld's Mattie Ross in the teaser. It looks exciting as hell, and the use of Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is brilliant, as is that last stinger after the title, a smaller bit of one of the original novel's most intense scenes. Needless to say, this has me excited to the point of incoherence.

You just hit the jackpot: Emma Stone offered Mary Jane to Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man

I've been iffy on the whole "Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi walked so we're rebooting the franchise less than five years after the fact" thing, but I got a lot more excited when Andrew Garfield was cast as Peter Parker in Marc "500 Days of Summer" Webb's upcoming reboot. Now, more exciting news that I'm a little late to the punch on, Emma Stone, who just recently somehow scored a profitable opening for an intelligent comedy with a sharp female protagonist, is now being offered the role of Mary Jane Watson. Given the type of characters Stone has played thus far in her career, I'm hoping this means her interpretation of the character will differ from substantially from Kirsten Dunst's, which varied between "reactive" and "cipher". No word yet as to whether Stone has accepted, or what other supporting characters/villain the film will feature, but yeah, this has me excited. Now just get us Dianna Agron as Gwen Stacey and we're golden.

New posters for "True Grit" and "For Colored Girls"

I missed these while I was getting my review of The Social Network up, but today saw the release of both a neat, retro poster or the Coen brothers' awesome-looking True Grit and an impressive, artsy poster for Tyler Perry's play adaptation For Colored Girls (the title was shortened from the play's title "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide (When the Rainbow is Enuf)" because we all know Perry can't abide movies with long, awkward titles.) Check 'em out! (Click for full-size)

Review: The Social Network (A)

I don't know if I'm always successful, but I can at least tell you that I always try not to be pretentious on this blog, so it probably looks bad that I'm starting this review off with a Biblical quote, but while I watched David Fincher's The Social Network, my mind kept going back to Matthew 16:26, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Specifically, in one of the movie's most brilliant scenes, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), his eventual billion-dollar idea rapidly growing, approaches Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) in a bar. Erica, in the opening scene, broke up with Mark due to his bluntness and lack of social graces, which a drunk Mark had responded to with a furious, hateful blog post disparaging, among other things, the size of her breasts. Now, Mark is taking Harvard's campus by storm, strangers are stopping him to praise him for it, and he just had an Asian sorority girl go down on him, but none of this means anything to Erica, who still just remembers him as the asshole who humiliated her.

In that same night of drunk-blogging, Mark, with the help of his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield, doing Best Supporting Actor work), hacks into several Harvard dorms' databases of resident photos and creates a website in which students are asked to vote on which girl in random pairs is hotter. The firestorm of controversy (and Mark's returning sobriety) compel him to shut down the site, but the astounding amount of hits it got has clearly got his wheels spinning. Soon after, he's approached by WASPy rowing champions Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer, digitally doubled) to help them create a Friendster-esque networking site that can only be accessed by someone with a harvard.edu email address (a none-too-subtle implication that the old-money twins don't want anything that's available to just anybody). Mark gives them the run-around while going to Eduardo with an idea of his own, which would, of course, eventually be Facebook. Eduardo, a business whiz who made a small fortune betting oil futures against the weather, puts up the money and the site becomes the next big thing almost immediately. Furious, the Winklevosses (or "Winklevi", asMark calls them) try to get academic, and then legal action taken against him (scenes of the deposition are intercut with the movie's main narrative). Eduardo, meanwhile, grows uneasy with what he perceives as both the growing rift between him and Mark and Mark's increasing closeness to between-jobs Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake, giving a performance so charismatic and charming that we never really hate this thoroughly hateable character). As you might gather, by this point, Facebook is really an incidental element in the movie, a modern Greek tragedy about friendships, betrayals and ambition. Fincher proves his versatility by showing flashes of the spastic, claustrophobic direction of Fight Club and Seven, the relaxed, personal direction of Zodiac and the sprawling, landscape driven-angles of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The acting is all-around brilliant, although the vast majority of the work is done by Eisenberg (who finally sheds the Diet Michael Cera shtick that has colored most of his other performances), Garfield (who has the tricky task of being a British actor playing a Brazilian-American Jew, and gives a furious rant at the very end that proves he's one of the next generation of great actors) and Timberlake, who is just way better than any pop star in a major supporting role has any right to be. And special mention must be made of Trent Reznor's score, perhaps the best use of original music as a separate character since Johnny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood. Well-traveled screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, meanwhile, may well be measuring the shelves for his Oscar already. And I know I started this review by saying I'd try not to be pretentious, so it probably hurts my case to close by comparing this movie to The Godfather Part II, but try to watch the movie's brilliant final scene without thinking of Michael Corleone alone in his chair. And now some cheesiness to offset the pretension: Zack Budryk really, really likes this.

Okay, seriously, what the fuck: R.I.P. "Chinatown" actor Joe Mantell

After three rapid-fire film industry deaths this week already, Joe Mantell, who had over 70 film credits, including Marty and Roman Polanski's Chinatown, in which he delivered the immortal closing line "Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown", has died at 94; Mantell had not appeared onscreen since 1990's Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, but that one line could have been the only acting he ever did and he'd still be part of film history.

You dirty mallrat: Warner Bros' offers Ben Affleck period gangster film

After the brilliant one-two punch that was Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Vulture reports that Ben Affleck is being sought by Warner Bros. to direct Tales from the Gangster Squad, a chronicle of the LAPD's cops-for-hire who sought to bring down legendary L.A. gangster Mickey Cohen. Affleck would be working from a script by former South Central cop/novelist Will Beall, and, needless to say, I'm finding the idea of him doing this really exciting. It's thematically similar to his first two without the blue-collar Boston setting, and Affleck has proven can do gritty crime stories with the best of them. Time will tell, if he even accepts the project; assuming he does, let's hope it's more L.A. Confidential than The Black Dahlia.

Tony Curtis dead at 85

This has been a pretty tragic week for moviegoers; on three consecutive days, the world lost longtime Tarantino editor Sally Menke, Bonnie & Clyde and Little Big Man director Arthur Penn, and today, Hollywood institution Tony Curtis. Although Curtis (nee Bernard Schwartz) started out primarily in none-too-substantial heartthrob roles, he eventually showed his dramatic chops in fantastic films like The Sweet Smell of Success and The Defiant Ones, nominated for an Oscar for the latter. His most famous role (other than his real-life role as the husband and Janet Leigh and the father of Jamie Lee Curtis) was probably that of one of the two cross-dressing musicians in the classic comedy Some Like it Hot. Towards the end of his life, although he still acted occasionally, Curtis preferred to focus on his painting. You'll be sorely missed, Tony.

"Mad Men"'s Jared Harris lands role of Moriarty in "Sherlock Holmes" sequel

The perpetual exclusive-havers at Latino Review report that the ever-fantastic Jared Harris, who Mad Men fans know as Lane Pryce and lame bloggers like myself who don't have time to watch Mad Men know as the drunk old sea captain in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, has been cast as Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty in the upcoming sequel to Guy Ritchie's 2009 film. This comes right on the heels of the equally exciting news that Stephen Fry will be playing Holmes' older brother Mycroft. I'm not gonna lie, Harris never occurred to me for the part (I was plumping for Sir Ben Kingsley myself), and it certainly doesn't fit with the rumors that another A-lister would get the role (hence the rumblings about Daniel Day-Lewis and Brad Pitt), but Harris is a great actor and the occasional bit of counterintuitive casting ("Jude Law as Watson?!") didn't hurt the first film. The sequel is scheduled for release December 16, 2011.

Longtime Quentin Tarantino editor Sally Menke dead at 56

Some terrible, terrible news for both moviegoers and humanity in general; according to the L.A. Times, Sally Menke, who handled editing duties for all of Quentin Tarantino's films, and was nominated for the Best Achievement in Editing Academy Award for both Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction, was found dead in Beachwood Canyon after going missing yesterday. A cause of death hasn't been confirmed yet, but the Times article seems to suggest the area's extreme heat played a part. I apologize for not figuring out how to embed video yet, but here's Quentin Tarantino praising her phenomenal work.

Fuck it, Dude, let's go bounty-hunting: teaser for the Coens' "True Grit"

Today saw the release of the teaser trailer for Joel and Ethan Coen's eagerly anticipated adaptation of Charles Portis' True Grit, best known for the prior 1969 adaptation that won John Wayne his only Oscar. Most of the trailer's attention is given to newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Mattie Ross, a young girl who hires an alcoholic U.S. marshal (Jeff Bridges) and a Texas ranger (Matt Damon) to help her find the hired hand (Josh Brolin) who killed her father. The trailer gives us our first good look at Damon and Brolin, as well as flashes of the climactic horse-gunfight, which fans of the book and '69 movie may remember as one of the most badass things in human history. Enjoy.

Hulk see you: Mark Ruffalo reports his Hulk will be "Avatar"-esque motion capture

Gifted character actor/Edward Norton replacement Mark Ruffalo tells New York magazine that, unlike Norton and Eric Bana's respective Hulks, his version of the character in the upcoming Avengers film will be "the Avatar stop-action, stop-motion capture. So I'll actually play the Hulk. That'll be fun." Sounds like it could be pretty cool; I'll reserve judgment until I see footage; Ruffalo's involvement with this project is hugely exciting in general.

"The Hobbit" to never, ever fuckin' get made

Following its setbacks involving changing directors, copyright disputes and several producers falling victim to an ancient Egyptian curse, Peter Jackson's perpetually unlucky adaptation of The Hobbit has hit another snag, specifically an admonition by the Screen Actor's Guild not to accept work on the non-union film.Jackson has responded by threatening to move production to Eastern Europe, where presumably werewolves will keep away the union reps. I've got to be honest, this is starting to look like one of those movies where it could turn out to be a masterpiece and it still wouldn't have been worth all the delays. I do love Jackson's idea of Neil Blomkamp directing, though.

"Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer" trailer

It's been a better year than average for documentaries; today, we get the first trailer for Alex Gibney's "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer". Spitzer, you may remember, was the New York governor who was overwhelmingly popular and built up a reputation as a sort of statewide Eliot Ness for his efforts at reform, and then it turned out he really, really liked hookers. Gibney's shown a special talent for making films about powerful guys who rose fast and fell hard (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, this year's Casino Jack and the United States of Money), so color me intrigued. The film will be released on iTunes and OnDemand this very Friday, and in theaters November 5. Here ya go.

"The King's Speech" trailer

Okay, this is a few days late, but as I've said, I'm just recently back. Earning a standing ovation at the Telluride Film Festival and the People's Choice Award (which previously went to such eventual awards favorites as "Whale Rider", "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Precious") at the Toronto, the film is the story of King George VI (Colin Firth), who was forced to assume the throne when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abdicated the crown to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Unfortunately, George had a terminal stutter, which led to his wife Elizabeth (played here by Helena Bonham Carter) to bring in Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech pathologist with Unorthodox Methods (tm), who rid the king of his speech impediment in time for him to make the speech of the title, announcing Britain's entry into World War II. Maybe I'm biased by the heavy advance praise, but the trailer's got me pretty excited; Rush and Firth both seem in top form, as does Helena Bonham Carter, who's always been a quality actress but I will confess I had no idea was an Oscar nominee already. (Also, in what's quite possibly the weirdest Harry Potter reunion ever, we get a glimpse of Timothy "Wormtail" Spall as Winston Churchill.) Check it out!

Review: Get Low (B+)

All right, first of all, just to clear this up before you can make any jokes: no, the sweat does not drip down anybody's balls in Aaron Schneider's directoral debut Get Low. What we do get, however, is a lovely slice of modern American tall tale from a combination of respected veterans and new talents who clearly have a bright future. Robert Duvall stars as Felix Bush, a hermit who's lived alone in the hills of Tennessee for four decades with nothing known about him but the boogeyman-style urban (rural?) legends circulated in the nearest town.
So everyone's a little astonished and frightened when Felix walks into town one day and heads for the local funeral home, run by expatriate Chicagoan Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) and his assistant Buddy (Lucas Black). There, Felix, presenting them with a comically balled-up wad of money that he appears to carry everywhere, tells them what he wants: a funeral for himself that he'll be able to attend. Oh, and everyone who has a story to tell about him is invited. Buddy is a little confused, but Frank, feeling the sting of the Great Depression on business, is not turning down work from anyone. As they prepare for the funeral, Felix becomes reacquainted with a mysterious woman from his past (Sissy Spacek), and we inch ever-closer to learning what really kept him up in the hills for so long.
As a lot of people have already stated, Duvall is phenomenal and Oscar-worthy in this; his character is for the most part something entirely new, although it has echoes of his in Secondhand Lions, another old man with a past we only learn a little at a time. Without revealing too much, his final speech at the funeral will floor you; if they didn't already show acting clips at the Oscars, they would start based on this. Murray, playing a variation on the endearing-scoundrel type that comes to him with such ease, comes close to Duvall in terms of quality acting, and, nothing against the likes of Lost in Translation, but after his period of Bill-Murray-wantz-Oscar-so-he-haz-a-sad performances, it's nice to see him play it funny, if not entirely comedic, again. He also gets one of the best one-liners in the crackling script, "I sold cars in Chicago with the wind so far up my ass I was farting snowflakes in July", which may be how I answer the phone now. Lucas Black, a talented young actor who's had the misfortune to mostly be in shitty movies thus far, is also excellent as Buddy, a man who wants to make a good life for his wife and baby and isn't sure how far deep he wants to be pulled into this strange old man's story, but who can't help but be fascinated by him at the same time. There are also a couple quality scenes with the wonderful character actor Bill Cobb as a preacher Felix is (aheh) dead set on securing for the funeral service. The cinematography of the Southern hills and forests by David Boyd, a veteran of similar-looking TV such as Deadwood and Friday Night Lights, is so gorgeous and evocative you can practically smell the fallen leaves and chimney smoke; even with all the movie's got going for it, it wouldn't work nearly as well without him, or Jan A.P. Kaczmarek's twangy score. I wouldn't say Get Low is the kind of film they don't film they don't make anymore, but it's the kind of film they don't make enough of anymore: a rich, deep character study with a real sense of place and time, and a concise, uniquely American story.

Oh, and my major Oscar nominee predictions

This is kind of a personal hobby for me; I know at this point I could be completely off-base, and some of them are crazy hunches on my part, so just to avoid second-guessing myself until it gets annoying, I won't be updating these until the beginning of next year. It might be kinda fun to see how far off/close I was. All right, let's go.

Best Picture
The King's Speech
Inception
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
Another Year
127 Hours
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
True Grit
Rabbit Hole

Best Director
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
David Fincher, The Social Network
Christopher Nolan, Inception
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
David O. Russell, The Fighter

Best Actor
James Franco, 127 Hours
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Robert Duvall, Get Low
Mark Wahlberg, the Fighter

Best Actress
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Sally Hawkins, Made in Dagenham

Best Supporting Actor
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Sam Rockwell, Conviction

Best Supporting Actress
Dianne Wiest, Rabbit Hole
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan

Best Original Screenplay
The King's Speech
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The Fighter
Black Swan

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
How to Train Your Dragon
Rabbit Hole
The Town

Review: The Town (A-)

Yeah, I'm back. I'd rather get back into the blogging than dick around, so without further ado, I'm gonna do some back-reviews of some of the recent movies I've caught, even though they're slightly old news. Let's start.
There's a throwaway scene in Ben Affleck's "The Town" that might summarize it better than any other: bank robber Gloansy (played by Boston-area rapper Slaine) is being ordered by the feds to read a statement for a voice match. Gloansy, told he's misreading it, protests "I'm tryin' to be...authenticious, and you're fuckin' it up." That's how Ben Affleck, cruising back up to respectability on Bartleby's wings, sees his native town, and wants to show it to us. As the film, based on Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves, opens, we're given a series of statistics on Charlestown, Massachusetts, bank robbery capital of the nation. We then launch right into a daylight bank heist by four masked men, Doug (Affleck), Jem (Jeremy Renner), Gloansy and Dez (Owen Burke). When Jem gets violent on an uncooperative bank exec (seriously, why does every criminal gang in the movies insist on bringing along a psychopath?), the crew takes manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage until they're clear of the bank, releasing her, blindfolded, on the beach. Doing some follow-up research, Doug discovers Claire, like them, is a resident of Charlestown. Jem is all for killing her, but Doug insists on merely shadowing her. One thing leads to another, and Doug finds himself dating and falling in love with Claire, still shattered from her brief abduction and completely unaware who Doug really is ("I know I'd recognize their voices," she tells him. "You sure about that?" he responds.)

Meanwhile, Doug's got trouble on both sides of the law, between obsessed FBI agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) on one side and both the mercurial Jem and their boss, creepy neighborhood florist-cum-gangster Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) on the other. As the stakes grow higher and higher, Doug is faced with what might be an opportunity to redeem himself and start a new life with Claire, but the life isn't going to let him leave without a fight.
It really can't be overstated how effectively Affleck's redeemed himself since his days as part of an easy "Gigli" joke for the laziest comedians known to man. Not only does he direct with the eye of someone who clearly loves Boston like a father (dig the darkly gorgeous opening shot of the Bunker Hill Monument), he gives one of his best performances since "Chasing Amy", creating in Doug a man whose fundamental decency can't decide whether to pull him in the direction of cleaning up his life or staying loyal to his friends. Hall is also fantastic in a soft-eyed, vulnerable way as Claire; that woman needs to be a big name in Hollywood, like, now. Chris Cooper, who seems incapable of bad performances, has one scene as Doug's incarcerated father, and does a great job with it. The real scene-stealer, however, is Renner as Jem, who he pretty much plays as a Townie James Cagney, showing how Jem's a genuinely scary guy but also demonstrating how he's got that certain kind of crazy that can make him fun to be around. And I hate to keep ticking off this movie's great performances on my fingers, but I have to mention Blake Lively's unexpectedly wonderful performance as Krista, Jem's junkie sister. Jon Hamm, being Jon Hamm, is also great; Frawley is kind of Don Draper as the bad cop, and Hamm plays him as such. He gives Frawley a dark edge to the character that makes you wonder if maybe he's less the law's version of Doug than he is its version of Jem. The movie's only a shade away from being as good as Affleck's similarly-themed directoral debut, "Gone Baby Gone", but I feel like I may change my tune on that as time goes by. One hopes that Affleck will branch out, subject-wise, but personally, I'm okay if he doesn't if the output stays this good.