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.
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