The Town

OPENING: 09/17/2010

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

RUN TIME: 123 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Welcome to the bank robbery capitol of America.

Opening Statement
For a certain window of time in the early part of the 21st Century, Ben Affleck became Hollywood’s whipping boy. Maybe it was all the tabloid attention he was getting due to his high-profile relationships with two women named Jennifer; maybe it was the level of his stardom in contrast to his seemingly limited talents, but the man took a lot of flack. Then in 2007, Affleck directed the sensitive crime drama Gone, Baby, Gone. The film was well-regarded by critics and audiences, almost instantly earning Affleck a measure of respect and credibility he hadn’t enjoyed since the Good Will Hunting days. Now Affleck has returned to the directing game, hoping to repeat his success by offering up The Town, another crime drama set in Boston. While it’s not quite as memorable as its predecessor, it’s another well-made flick that confirms Affleck knows what he’s doing behind the camera.

Facts of the Case
The film’s title refers to Charlestown, a neighborhood in Boston which just so happens to be the bank robbery capital of the world. At least, that’s what the film itself informs us as it begins. It’s said that bank robbery is pretty much a family tradition in Charlestown, a craft passed down from father to son over the years. One of those sons is Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), who’s pulled off several successful jobs in the past with his tight-knit four-man team. Doug’s latest heist went reasonably well, but the team is a little worried that a female bank employee named Claire (Rebecca Hall, Vicky Christina Barcelona) may have seen and heard a little too much. It’s suggested that Doug should find her, maybe scare her a little bit and ensure that she doesn’t try to talk to the cops about what she may or may not know.

Doug finds Claire in a local Laundromat and intends to follow her home, but things don’t quite go as planned. The two end up chatting casually with each other and before you can say, “very inadvisable idea,” they’re in a romantic relationship. Naturally, Claire doesn’t know that Doug was one of the masked men holding a gun to her head not so long ago. This new relationship combined with the increasingly risky nature of the assignments Doug is given starts to make our protagonist contemplate his life. He wants to leave Charlestown, take his new girlfriend down to Miami and simply start over. Alas, he’s going to have to pull off one last job first.

The Evidence
The basic plot framework of The Town is fairly standard-issue material; interesting enough but far from original. We’ve seen this movie before, and more importantly we’ve seen better, smarter versions of it before (the promotional materials for the film have invited comparisons to The Departed, which did this sort of thing with greater panache). Fortunately, Affleck’s latest outing avoids throwaway-movie-of-the-week status due to its sturdy craftsmanship and strong performances from its cast.

The most interesting thing about The Town is the manner in which it explores the idea that some people don’t so much choose to be criminals as slip into the profession by default. Doug was once a promising hockey player, but after that didn’t work on he had to rely on the old family trade. He doesn’t seem to enjoy robbing banks and certainly would take no pleasure in hurting people, but it’s what he knows how to do. This works out well enough for a while, until the dynamic between the players involved starts to change. Doug wants to get out of the game, his buddy James (Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker) is getting intoxicated on the thrill of it all and their employer (Pete Postelthwaite, Clash of the Titans) wants to make sure his crew is going to keep doing work on a regular basis. The more Doug pulls away, the tighter the noose around his neck becomes. Soon, he’s trying to escape via digging in even deeper.

Affleck and Hall are quiet and appealing as the two lovers at the center of the story. They’re friendly, reasonable people surrounded by hard-edged, relentless individuals. Jeremy Renner’s performance has echoes of his work in The Hurt Locker; though this character gets sloppier as his excitement level builds. Jon Hamm (who does such remarkable work on Mad Men) gets one of his first substantial cinematic roles an FBI Agent who lacks the evidence he needs to convict Doug but not the will to find it. Postelthwaite and Chris Cooper (Breach) both strike very interesting notes in their limited screen time. Heck, even Blake Lively (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) is persuasive as Doug’s whiny, drug-addled ex-girlfriend. One could say the performances in this film deserve a better script, but let’s look at the bright side: these folks turn what could have been a mediocre movie into a compelling one.

Things are solid on a technical level, as Affleck once again does a fine job of immersing us in his beloved hometown setting (atmospheric work from cinematographer Robert Elswitt helps, too). The action scenes are sometimes a bit over-the-top for a film otherwise rooted in low-key realism, but they’re directed with focus and clarity. Then there are moments where Affleck manages to capture something a bit deeper than what the dialogue has to offer; an assortment of thoughtful close-ups and long shots that are elegant in their silence.

Closing Statement
The Town is a reasonably classy little action movie. The pieces are in place for a terrific film, but the middling screenplay prevents it from being anymore more than, “pretty good.” Not a must-see, but it’s worth a look.

The Verdict
7/10

The Hurt Locker

OPENING: 06/24/2009

STUDIO: Summit Entertainment

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

SOUNDTRACK: Not yet available

The Charge
You don’t have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.

Opening Statement
Since the U.S. Military has been at war in Iraq for quite some time, you would think Hollywood would have produced a generous handful of compelling and insightful films on the subject. Such has not been the case. Most of the Iraq movies to date have been underwhelming, and the audience response to those movies even more so. That finally changes with The Hurt Locker, a dynamic thriller from director Katheryn Bigelow that unquestionably keeps moviegoers on the edge of their seats.

Facts of the Case
The film follows an Army bomb squad unit which spends most of its time seeking out and defusing dangerous explosives. Such things seem to turn up with surprising frequency, but Staff Sergeant Will James (Jeremy Renner, 28 Weeks Later) is always up to the task. He has personally defused over 800 bombs. Each time he straps on his protective suit and heads towards his latest assignment it’s a new gamble, but James’ precision and expertise provide him a better chance than most. However, a thrill seeking side causes him to behave in ways that greatly disturb his right-hand men, Sergeant JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie, Million Dollar Baby) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty, I Know Who Killed Me). As the missions continue, the tension between them rises. Will they make it to the end of their tour alive?

The Evidence
What The Hurt Locker has to say about soldiers and the nature of war is honest, if not particularly new or revolutionary — War is Hell; it mentally traumatizes many of the people it doesn’t physically kill; some soldiers get addicted to the rush of dangerous situations; and life feels somewhat dull when that rush is gone. These are the same messages (or variations thereof) other movies have provided, the difference being The Hurt Locker is less preoccupied with sermonizing and considerably more focused on providing a tightly crafted film. Politics and messages aside (though such elements are handled wisely), this is first and foremost a tremendous thriller.

Bigelow dives into suspense-laden action from the very first scene, only allowing the movie to come up for air briefly between set pieces. Each major sequence is a relentless exercise in Hitchcockian tension; from the opening bomb-defusing attempt and tenacious sniper battle to the challenging decisions that must be made in the third act. Don’t let the casual acting style and queasy-cam cinematography fool you. Some of this stuff may feel improvised, but this is tightly organized and well-crafted filmmaking. Bigelow throws you right into the action, in a manner that occasionally recalls Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, with sequence after sequence bringing additional suspense to the table. Violent explosions are employed frequently enough to make every moment seem like a potentially fatal one, but not often enough to soften the blow of the violent events that actually occur.

The quiet beats in the film are short, essential, intentionally restless, and awkward. It would seem some of these men simply don’t know what to do with themselves when they aren’t on the battlefield. There is a moment that initially seems like playfully innocent roughhousing, but we quickly realize the two men involved are inflicting genuine pain on each other. This is partially because they are frustrated with each other and eager to get it out of their system, but mostly because they’ve come to a point where such extremities are needed to simply be able to feel something. What they do and what they see has made them numb to the minor pains and pleasures of life. Once you’ve felt the life-or-death terror of defusing a weapon that could blow you to kingdom come, most other stuff doesn’t cut it.

The cast is uniformly solid across the board, from relative unknowns like Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty to old pros like Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes. Still, the movie belongs to Jeremy Renner, whose work here may very well earn him an Oscar nomination. He takes a character who moves along a rather familiar path and somehow manages to avoid all of the standard acting choices such a role ordinarily inspires while also seeming thoroughly believable at every turn. His sense of adventure does not lead him into foolish cowboy behavior, only the appearance of such. His actions are fine-tuned and carefully-planned to the Nth degree. The film plunges into some challenging areas, over the course of its 127-minute runtime, and Renner is up to task every step of the way.

Closing Statement
I may find The Hurt Locker less than a revolutionary statement on warfare, but as a piece of cinema I have intense admiration for it. This film grabs the viewer from moment one and doesn’t let go. It’s a hardcore slice of professional filmmaking, putting most of this summer’s action films to shame and bringing considerable emotional weight to its thrills.

The Verdict
9/10