The Town: Ben Affleck Isn’t F’ing Around

We all owe Ben Affleck an apology. When he was putting out Good Will Hunting, Mallrats and Changing Lanes, we were on his side. We'd defend him in fights, buy him a round at the local watering hole, and put in a good word for him with our single, attractive female friends. Yes, we and Ben Affleck were like peas and carrots.

Then he started fucking around on us. At first he fucked around with history in Pearl Harbor, but since it was his first offense, we were willing to let it slide. Soon after, he was fucking around with superheroes in Daredevil, and we got worried. Then he was fucking around with the devil Jennifer Lopez in Gigli, and we panicked. Then it was Philip K. Dick in Paycheck, and after making baby Jesus cry with Surviving Christmas, Ben Affleck was no longer in our good graces. We called him a hack, we said his good reputation was gained through osmosis by surrounding himself with talented friends, and we spread rumors that he had HIV (well, not ME, but I'm sure somebody, probably Preston Garret, did).

But then Gone Baby Gone happened, and it was really good. It helped partially wash the bad taste of Reindeer Games out of our mouths. It got Amy Ryan an Academy Award nomination. But still we trash talked. "He's just trying to distract us from the fact that Casey got all the good acting genes" somebody (probably Preston Garret) said. We wanted to believe, but we also wondered if this wasn't just a fluke too. We'd been hurt too many times before. I mean, seriously – did you SEE Gigli?

The Town is confirmation that no, it's not a fluke. Based on the novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan, The Town is Ben Affleck's sophomore directorial effort, which he co-wrote with Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig. But it's more than that. It's proof that Ben Affleck is serious, that's he found his strength, that he's through fucking around.

Fittingly, he stars as Doug MacRay, a roughneck bank robber and member of a "not fucking around crew" from the Charlestown section of Boston. Charlestown, we're told, has spawned more bank robbers than any other neighborhood in the entire world. Men are bred to become bank robbers there, men like MacRay's friend James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner). He's not a Waingro-level wild card, but he did kill a guy at the age of 18 "because he didn't like him." MacRay, Coughlin, and his crew are very good at what they do.

Unfortunately for them, so is FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm), a "not fucking around" kind of agent who's not above throwing informants through class coffee tables in order to collect information. Frawley knows enough to link MacRay and his crew to a robbery at the outset of the film in which Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) was the only witness to any identifying mark on the masked robbers – a fighting Irish tattoo on the back of Coughlin's neck.

MacRay says he'll take care of her, and he does – too well because they end up falling for each other. He wants to leave town with her and only ever see Charlestown again in his rearview mirror. But it's not that simple. On top of Frawley watching his every move, there's a complicated matter of loyalty to the neighborhood where he's lived his entire life and the family with whom he grew up and the one final job he owes to local crime boss, The Florist (Pete Postelthwaite).

Let me get the negative comments out of the way first. When it comes down to it, The Town is nothing we haven't seen before. From many of the story elements to some of the shootout choreography, quite a few pieces of this puzzle were previously seen in superior films like Heat and even Good Will Hunting. Indeed, after this film, Renner and Val Kilmer should now know a thing or two about having a shootout with an automatic weapon in a crowded city street.

Negative comments over. Seriously, The Town is such a solid film from beginning to end that a lot of critiques would simply be nitpicking. Just because the film may not be groundbreaking doesn't mean that it can't be appreciated for how exceptionally its put together. From the tight script where not a single scene is wasted to the solid directing with multiple scenes of breathtaking excitement, The Town is by far one of the best put together films of the year from action-packed beginning to fitting ending. Sure, even though the film takes place in lower-class Boston, it would feel disingenuous to use either "gritty" or "realistic" to describe the overall tone. But that's okay because Affleck and co. are not trying to edify us on the minutiae of urban crime culture like Scorsese did in Mean Streets or on the moral gray areas between good guys and bad guys like Mann in Heat. They just want to tell the tale of a good guy trying to overcome his bad environment and it that respect, The Town completely delivers.

Ben Affleck has received a lot of flak for his bad acting in the past, but after seeing his performance in The Town, I'm wondering if some of that isn't partially due to the fact that he was never the one calling the shots. Almost immediately he brings a gravity to the lead role that's complimented at every turn by the great performances from Renner, Hall, and Hamm. Hamm's portrayal of the manipulative Frawley should dispel any doubts about transitioning from TV to film, but it's Renner who steals the show in every scene in which he's featured. He broke through this year with an Oscar nomination for The Hurt Locker, and I would be very surprised if he didn't duplicate that feat again next year.

So if you're reading this, Ben Affleck, on behalf of the world, I'd just like to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for doubting you. I'm sorry for not being patient with you. I'm sorry that I so quickly jumped on the bandwagon (but seriously, Ben, did YOU even see Gigli?). But even more importantly, I'd like to say thank you for making The Town. I look forward to what you'll be putting out next.