Movie - The Town

Perhaps the American folk are right in saying this is the worse year for films; the theory is that the films out this year were put into production around 2008 when the banking world collapsed and nearly took us all with it.I’m extra thankful then for The Town released this year.I understand it to be the first time Ben Affleck has both directed and starred in a film, although he directed the haunting Gone Baby Gone, in the same close-up style. One job must be hard enough so I can’t envisage being both in front of and behind the camera.The Town is ‘Charlestown’, a suburb of Boston where generations of bank robbers apparently reside. Affleck’s character Doug MacRay, is the leader of one such criminal gang and whereas he stops at the point of any violence, his right hand man, best buddy Jem (Jeremy Renner) is not so timid.On what’s proposed as their last ‘hit’, Jem decides to kidnap the bank manager Claire for no apparent reason other than he seemingly can.Thereby begins the twist early in the tale; they think she may be able to recognise them and Doug is duly dispatched to ‘make sure she doesn’t’. His idea is to start up a relationship of sorts so we have the bank robber that kidnapped the bank manager dating her.As you can imagine there is more to this story with a mix of the larger criminal fraternity including Fergie the Florist (Pete Postlethwaite), the police, the FBI and family members all throwing their weight into what Doug should do next.There are a few frustrating moments in the film but on reflection, these just serve to keep me on the end of my seat, waiting for the next move.Very clever indeed.8/10Smile factor 7/10 for a few well planned jokes.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ7wcayQQLQ&fs=1&hl=en_GB]