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So did you know that Charlestown, Massachusetts has produced more bank robbers and thieves than any other community in the United States? That’s what they say anyway at the beginning of this movie and a whole lot more.
The TOWN, directed by Ben Affleck, who also starred in the movie, is not a big film and it’s not a little movie either. The characters are big and all too believable. Tough town, tough kids and these 4 friends are amongst the toughest. Affleck portrays a reformed drug and alcohol abuser, but still a crook and the brains of the foursome. His brother, (in name, not blood) Jim, played by Jeremy Renner is the real tough guy. Jim spent 9 years in Walpole prison for murder because he killed someone who he purportedly thought was going to kill Doug (Affleck). He hasn’t forgotten how long those 9 years were and wants to extract a pound of flesh and a pint of blood from Doug for saving his life. Add that to the fact that in this incestuous little group, there is speculation that Jim’s sister, Krista’s (Blake Lively) daughter, Shine is the love child of Doug and her. The guys ostensibly work for a small time hood and local crime boss who plans the robberies and then bullies and/or blackmails the four friends into doing the jobs.
This isn’t just your average crime story; there are layers to the Affleck character who is clever, sensitive, savvy, smart but not intellectual, brutal, harsh and yet loyal. This wide range of personality characteristics are exquisitely rendered by Affleck. Sometimes it’s the softness in his voice or the surreptitious way in which he insinuates himself into Clare’s (Rebecca Hall) life, thereby he thinks, saving her from the trigger-happy sociopath Jim has become. His accent is perfect, not too Boston Irish, just enough to be convincing and natural.
Affleck, the Director and the film’s editor did a fantastic job editing the action scenes; the robberies, the shoot-outs and the car chases. The narrow streets of Boston, some no wider than the cow paths they once were. heighten the intensity of these harrowing, car-crushing chases.
The movie has some powerful actors in it, not the least of which is Chris Cooper, portrayed as Doug’s incarcerated father. There is a scene between son and father and as good as Ben Affleck is, Chris Cooper is better – he is so damn real. Prison, arrest, drugs, alcohol seem to be family traits in the inhabitants of Charlestown. A circular legacy if you will.
John Hamm, who I love in the role of Don Draper, on AMC’s Mad Men is cast as a FBI agent determined to find and arrest these bank robbers. As the head of the Division, he holds morning meetings a la Hill Street Blues and more recently, NYPD Blue but he’s not as good as Daniel J. Travanti or Dennis Franz.
Lastly the cinematography is beautiful; the aerial shots of Boston clearly play a strong role in allowing you to see the whole and the class system with its distinct and different neighborhoods. Boston is seen as the big city little town it really is.
And by the way, how do you buy 4 Nun’s masks and nobody thinks to follow that trail – hey I’m just asking!
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
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