Film File - The Town

The town in question is Charlestown, Boston, a blue-collar neighbourhood where crime is a family business, passed down from father to son. Carjacks, kidnaps and armed robberies are all in a mean day's work, we're told by the low-growl voiceover of Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), the brains behind the smartest bunch of bank robbers that this working class ghetto has ever produced. After half a minute, the voiceover fades out, only to return in the closing scenes. It tells us enough, though, that this is a dark and grimy journey to the dark side of the American Dream - one where bullets and broken promises are the norm for its inhabitants. There are over 300 bank robberies in Boston every year, and the one square mile neighbourhood of Charlestown has produced more bank and armoured car robbers than anywhere in the US. Doug MacRay is not cut from the same cloth as his fellow thieves, as he sees it, a guy who once he had a chance at success, a chance to escape following in his father's criminal footsteps. Instead he became the leader of a crew of ruthless bank robbers, who pride themselves on taking what they want and getting out clean. The only family Doug has are his partners in crime, especially Jem (Jeremy Renner), who, despite his dangerous, hair-trigger temper and a dedication to "coke and Xbox", is the closest thing Doug ever had to a brother. Not even the most organised gang goes without one bad job, however, like when Jem took bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage. When Doug discovers she lives in Charlestown, he seeks out Claire, who has no idea that their encounter is not by chance or that this charming stranger is one of the men who terrorised her only days before. Meeting a girl he might share a life with coincides with Doug's desire to quit the town and his past, and so he begins a last chance gamble to get out of the family business and make a fresh start somewhere new. In the crime trade of Charlestown, such dreams are dangerous and fleeting. And even as he tries to "put this whole f*****' town in my rear-view mirror", he'll have to escape the clutches of Fergus 'Fergie' Colm (Pete Postlethwaite), the florist who assigns his robberies and never hands out P45s. Added to the volatile mix is FBI agent Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm), who has been methodically building a case against Doug and waiting for the right moment to spring the trap. Based on the novel 'Prince Of Thieves' by Chuck Hogan, Charlestown itself figures as a prominent character in the film - a revolving door location where criminals go to prison and their families move to the area, and a community develops around it. 'The Town' is an introduction to a different Boston glimpsed during the Christmas shopping spree - a gritty, grimy enclave of backstreets, chainlink fences, construction sites, baseball parks and bars. The environment is reflected by the characters - hard men in sweatshirts and gold chains talking about horses, gambling and strip clubs. As well as directing, Affleck also co-scripts with Aaron Stockard in one of the sharpest screenplays of the year, brimming with authentic exchanges reminiscent of 'Mean Streets' all those years ago. "Ask me anything you want," Doug says to Claire. "I won't believe you," she says. "Yes, you will," he replies. "Why?" she demands. "Because you'll f***in' hate the answers…". Affleck holds the drama and action together with a sure hand, and his acting has now moved to such a plateau it wouldn't be right to mention 'Gigli' anymore. Hamm from 'Mad Men' brings just the right amount of obsessive determination to his FBI character, and Renner's out-of-control wingman recalls the ill-fated Val Kilmer from 'Heat'. 'The Town' is uncompromising entertainment, a place nobody would want to live but it does make for a stunning distraction for a couple of hours.