The Town (2010)

After the fantastic Gone Baby Gone (which I gave an 8 ) Ben Affleck is back with his second movie in the director’s chair. Just like that movie, this movie is also set in Boston, where Affleck grew up. During this movie a lot of bank heists take place in the city and Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert ‘Gloansy’ Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond Elden (Owen Burke) are one of the gangs responsible for them. These bank robberies are meticulously planned and the gang is very precise and professional in their execution. They wear latex gloves, are unrecognisable because of their masks and destroy any evidence that could be used against them (like putting the harddisks that are used for the surveillance cameras in the microwave)

Unfortunately one of their jobs doesn’t go as planned and they are forced to take a hostage with them. They do release her, but not all crew members are happy with that decision as the FBI is also looking for them and she might be able to tell them vital clues. Doug volunteers to take her out, but gets to know her better before he actually does so. Of course the rest of the crew isn’t happy with this decision.

The group has more planned and Doug is slowly starting to have feelings for the woman. He is forced to take a decision to living a wealthy life or leaving everything behind. It turns out to be a very tough decision.

With Gone Baby Gone Affleck already shows he is capable to deliver an excellent drama when he’s behind the camera. The Town also has some drama, but also has a lot of action sequences, which are all dynamically shown. Affleck shows he’s capable of directing those as well.
There is a lot of suspense as the FBI is slowly finding more and more clues and the gang is trying to make everything as hard for them as possible. The movie has various storylines that manage to tie the movie together. It also gives enough opportunity for the characters to shine and to understand their personal motivation for doing their own things. Boston itself is also a character as it is shown in much detail and really is a big part of the film.
The cast is great (e.g. Pete Postlethwaite, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and Chris Cooper) and they all manage to give great performances.

The Town is an exciting action movie which manages to entertain and grab your attention without letting go. Unfortunately towards the ending there were a number of bits to the story that didn’t feel realistic, but despite these small niggles it is a very good movie.

I saw this movie during my holiday in Surinam in the TBL Cinemas, which is a new (and only) cinema in Surinam (although there are places where movies are shown, like on thursday night at Zus en Zo). This new cinema is located right across the street from Flamboyant park:

This terrain (on which I unfortunately wasn’t able to find any information) used to be a drive-in. You can still see a part of the screen and it is a sad reminder of glory that has passed. I’ve never been to a drive-in and would have loved to experience it.

TBL Cinemas is a very modern cinema with a lot of screens that offers the latest movies. I’m sure that it will offer a great night out for anyone that has a hunger for movies when they are there on holiday.

Score: 8