The Town

The short version is that I enjoyed this film and consider it one of the best of 2010. That is not saying that there aren’t a few problems with the film. First let’s get an overall impression of the film.


When is a heist film not a heist film? If you had to sort movies and you only had very distinctly labeled buckets, you’d have to put this one in the buddy movie bucket. Most people would consider it a heist movie but Ben Affleck’s character is absolutely tied to Jeremy Renner’s character. The other members of the gang are only there to illustrate the nature of the residents of Charlestown. The robberies (4) are primarily to define the characters.


A heist movie usually has a detailed plot involving a gang trying to a big robbery. There may be other robberies preceding the big heist but they are always in preparation of the big heist. Almost all the gang members interact in different combinations. Think Ocean’s Eleven.


A buddy movie usually has the male friendship as the core theme. Male/female relationships take a secondary and conflicting role.


So here we have Affleck and Renner doing a series of robberies. Affleck has a unsatisfying female relationship replaced by an unsustainable relationship. Renner and another character (a father figure) push Affleck to more felonies. Without revealing too much, the frame-work of the movie is to resolve these conflicts.


All of these elements have been explored previously by Jean-Pierre Melville in a number of movies written/directed from 1955 to 1972. Affleck is no Melville. Although it appears that he and others involved with The Town studied his films assiduously. The core elements in the classic French films are all there in this modern American film.

The Town borrows heavily from Melville’s Le Doulos and Le Cercle Rouge. This is fine as few are going to see movies from the ’60s. Affleck is a second time director and I don’t think he could have done better than learning from these two films. I’ll discuss them in detail in a future post.