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Boston-baked Schemes

Boston has a long and storied history of overt corruption and criminal activity (Google "whitey bulger", "lottery ticket" for a particularly colorful tale) and both still remain very much a part of both the social fabric and the popular mythology of the area. Unlike most American cities, which have become increasingly cosmopolitan over the last century, change has come slowly to many of Boston's neighborhoods. Charlestown, specifically, retains an insular nature that would seem very comfortable to those who look at New York's "Little Italy" and wax nostalgic for the good ol' days.

Charlestown is also, as "The Town" barely stops short of boasting, the bank robbery capital of the world.

Born and bred in Charlestown, Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) has found himself drawn into the "family business" - namely thievery. MacRay leads a crew specializing in bank robberies, armored truck heists and, at least in the case of his partner and childhood friend James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"), unnecessary violence and risk taking. Coughlin is one of those classic movie baddies who trend toward the troubling end of the of psychopathic spectrum. Not a person you would want to meet on the street, and certainly not a person that you would want with you on a carefully organized grab-and-go. On one such job, Coughlin takes the bank manager as a hostage for no apparent reason. After freeing her (unharmed), he begins to worry that she may have seen something that might compromise the crew. MacRay, in the interests of finding out what she knows, arranges a chance meeting and begins spending increasing amounts of time with her.

The premise of "The Town" is interesting enough. An exploration of the complexities of the kind of life led by MacRay are rife with possibilities, particularly when balanced against the counterpoint of the yuppie transplant bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"). Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to the promise. While there are some good performances, particularly Chris Cooper's ("Adaptation") all-too-brief turn as the senior MacRay, the characters never quite gel on the screen. This is, for the most part, the fault of the screenplay, which was written by first-timer Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard (collaborators on "Gone Baby Gone") and feels very much like a committee effort. There are too many undeveloped thoughts and underdeveloped characters for the audience to ever fully connect, and the resulting lack of sympathy makes it hard to become invested in the story. Mr. Affleck, in particular, displays little of the charm and charisma that we have seen of him in the past, which might make sense for his character, but goes nowhere as to explaining why Keesey would fall in love with him. Essentially, all of the relationships are presented as a fait accompli, which is not particularly satisfying.

For those willing to accept this lack of depth, "The Town" does work as a reasonably effective heist movie. Mr. Affleck, who also directed, shows an adept hand at shooting action scenes, creating a palpable tension heightened by excellent location choices, including a car chase in the impossibly tight streets of the North End and a shootout in, as one character rightly puts it, "The Cathedral of Boston". And if the escape through the spires of the Buckner Bridge wasn't an inside joke, it should have been.

In fairness, Mr. Affleck should be commended for setting his sights high. Still, given the interesting concept and some excellent casting (with the exception of poor Jon Hamm, who may want to push for "Mad Men" exploring right up through the 80s) one can't help but feel that there was a better movie out there somewhere, waiting to be found.