Ben Affleck & Rebecca Hall in the movie The Town

Worth seeing for its actors, director Ben Affleck's sophomore directorial feature, "The Town," would've made a fine, trim, early-1930s studio picture from what's commonly called the pre-Production Code era.

It's violent but softhearted, and clearly digs the grungy allure of its chosen criminal world, where the bank robbers disguise themselves as ghouls, or ghoulish nuns in full habit.

Furthering the pre-Code vibe, the film's production notes include a sop to the guardians of decency, noting in a dedication that Boston's Charlestown neighborhood may be known for its bank and armored car robbers, but the movie "all but ignores the great majority of the residents of Charlestown, past and present, who are the same good and true people found most anywhere."

Yes, but there's no movie in those people!

There's a decent movie in "The Town," though this adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel "Prince of Thieves" stretches out to a misjudged 130 minutes. Two hours plus change isn't long, really. Plenty of films, and not just epics, justify three or more hours. Here, though, just when the screws should tighten, we get another leisurely dialogue scene, and hammy inevitables such as the protagonist, played by Affleck, telling his less stable partner in crime, played by Jeremy Renner of "The Hurt Locker": "Ya been like a brutha to me."

For an hour or so the action stays human-scaled, and Affleck's eye for locales, proved by "Gone Baby Gone," lends an authentic texture to the story. Affleck's character, Doug MacRay, had a dream of becoming a pro hockey player but ended up following in the footsteps of his bank robber father (Chris Cooper, making hay on very little screen time).

This is a one-last-job movie. Doug angles to make one last score with the gang and go clean. Renner's character, hotheaded Jem, doesn't like the idea; he wants things to stay as they are, robbery after robbery. In the film's opening bank heist, the Charlestown thieves end up taking a hostage, bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall, who knows no dishonesty on screen). Shaken afterward but unable to recognize her disguised assailants, Claire becomes involved with Doug.

Is that believable? Affleck and Hall make it so. It's only when "The Town" escalates the carnage for a big finish, involving Fenway Park and a lotta lotta money, that we actively stop believing. One of three credited writers, director Affleck likely felt the need to deliver a sympathetic, relatable, honorable criminal in Doug, just as he felt pressure to deliver enough shoot-'em-up material to get people past the thickness of the local dialect. The best work comes in the smaller scenes. Blake Lively is exceptional in the role of a drug-addled single mother who represents the life Doug's trying to ditch. Everyone's effective, even when hamstrung by cliches.

Well, almost everyone. I love Pete Postlethwaite as a rule, but here -- as a murderous florist who pulls all the strings -- he overacts his key scene so badly it's as if he did it on a dare. Also, Jon Hamm may rule on "Mad Men," but here he's stuck as a rather dimwitted FBI agent who's two beats behind the action, always.

 

MPAA rating: R (for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use).

Running time: 2:10.

Cast: Ben Affleck (Doug); Rebecca Hall (Claire); Jon Hamm (Agent Frawley); Jeremy Renner (Jem); Blake Lively (Krista); Pete Postlethwaite (Fergie); Chris Cooper (Mac).

Credits: Directed by Ben Affleck; written by Peter Craig, Affleck and Aaron Stockard, based on the novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan; produced by Graham King and Basil Iwanyk. A Warner Bros. Pictures release.

The Town Movie Review - Ben Affleck & Rebecca Hall