The Town | Teen Ink

The Town MAG

December 21, 2011
By Kareem Elzarka BRONZE, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
Kareem Elzarka BRONZE, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

“The Town” brings Ben Affleck back to where he has thrived – Boston, in all its glory and poverty. In the last few years I've become a crime drama fan. I used to hate this genre in movies and especially on television, but recently I've come around. “The Town” is full of characters we've all seen before: the cop (Jon Hamm) who desperately wants to get the scary-smart criminal, and the criminal (Affleck), who can feel the heat and wants out but can't because his crew (headed by Jeremy Renner) needs him for this one last “score of a lifetime.”

I've never understood the concept of the score of a lifetime. If you've been a criminal all your life, at some point I think you'd realize your luck stinks. But no, they never do. So the last big million-dollar haul is always too tempting to pass up. And, yes, there's always a girl (Rebecca Hall) who comes between the group and messes everything up because the mastermind can't focus on the big score. And, of course, the cop always finds the mastermind through the girl.

So, no, “The Town” isn't original in any sense of the word, but Affleck does a marvelous job executing all of the pieces. He also gets to wear multiple hats, showing off his directing and writing skills. “The Town” was one of the best movies of 2010 with a great cast of actors headed by Affleck himself.

This movie is rated R.


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This article has 1 comment.


mplo said...
on May. 20 2015 at 10:12 am
I saw "The Town", which I found kind of trashy, due to its poor cast, the fact that Ben Affleck bit off way more than he was able to chew by taking on both the jobs of the director of the film and the leading character. The shoot-out scenes in Boston's North End and Fenway Park were totally unrealistic...nobody could've survived those shootings, and nearby residences and businesses in the North End would've been wiped out or at least endangered by such shootouts. I also might add that no woman in her right mind would date a complete stranger without sizing him up beforehand, and the fact that Claire refused to sever contact with Doug MacRay even after learning who he was, through FBI Agt. Frawley, thus becoming an accessory to his crimes, indicates that this movie carries a message, for me, personally, that I don't like: That people don't have to be held accountable for what they do, or for the consequences of their actions and behaviors. Claire was not so innocent and honest either, since she took Doug's blood-stained loot money and spent it on the renovation of the Charlestown hockey rink, instead of arranging, anonymously, to turn it over to the proper authorities, with the tangerine (which would've given the authorities a clue as to where to find Doug MacRay), and the farewell note that he left her. The fact the Claire merely pretended to work with Frawley and the Feds in the end to help catch Doug MacRay, and then gives him the cutesy "sunny days" tip-off to warn him away from her condominium also indicates that she's not very honest or innocent, either. Imho, Claire should've either been criminally prosecuted herself for affectively being an accessory to Doug's crimes, and for helping Doug become a fugitive from justice and the law, or at least put on some sort of probation, with no right of appeal if she violated that probation. I also might add that Claire would've commanded much more respect if she'd kicked Doug out of her garden when he paid her a visit, in the same manner that she'd kicked him out of her Charlestown condominium after learning who he was, pointedly told him not to come around and bother her any more, and then contacted Agt. Frawley right away.