Venice 2010 Review: THE TOWN, Ben Affleck's unabashed genre movie has intelligence and craft
rating: 4
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A friend of mine told me last week that, amid this diet of arty, "worthy" festival competition films, the viewing of the occasional, more conventional, movie could be "a great palette cleanser". And so it proved to be with The Town, sandwiched as it was between the sombre and historical Venus Noire, and the pretentious Promises Written on Water. This Ben Affleck directed crime thriller is an unabashed genre movie, which played out of competition. The film is set in Boston, which we are told right away is the bank robbery capital of the US and a place where crime is "a trade passed from father to son". The story is familiar, most closely owing a debt to Michael Mann, especially Heat and Thief. A dedicated team of professional criminals - which includes Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner - rob a bank. However, the plan is soon compromised and the crew take the manager (Rebecca Hall) hostage as they make their escape. Hall is the only witness to their crime, but also becomes the object of Affleck's affection. All the clichés are here, from Renner's "violent loose canon" character, whilst Pete Postlethwaite is on hand as the criminal boss "who won't take no for an answer". Affleck meanwhile is setting up his "last job" and dream of retirement. There is also a white trash, drug-addicted girlfriend character (an underwritten role made better by a decent turn from Blake Lively) . But the film knows exactly what it is, ticking these boxes with a steady and reassuring hand. Even Affleck's love story with Rebecca Hall's character comes to echo a mixture of Val Kilmer's in Heat, and James Caan's in Thief. In fact, in case you weren't already convinced of its debt to Heat in particular, the three main action sequences are virtually stolen verbatim: a bank job, a security van robbery and an all-out gun battle through the city streets.