Affleck Returns To His Town

by Andrew Moraitis 16 October 2010 02:10 Filmink Discusses

Affleck follows up his excellent debut film with a thriller which echoes many of the themes from his Oscar-winning screenplay Good Will Hunting.

In a prominent bank in Cambridge - one of the most affluent areas of Boston, home to Harvard University - CCTV footage shows a burglary in progress. As the four gunmen - lifelong friends who grew up on the tough streets of Charlestown, a neighbourhood where "heisting banks is a trade" - threaten bank staff and patrons with their semi-automatic weapons, they force the bank's manager to open the high-security vault. The manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), tries to open the high-security lock, but her arm is shaking and she is unable to put in the right code in her state of duress. When the gang's resident-psycho, Jem (The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner) threatens the older assistant manager, the gang's leader Doug (director Ben Affleck) steps forward and touches her arm, assuring Claire, "Take your time."

In the first sequence of The Town, Affleck's entertaining follow-up to his superior directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, the filmmakers sensitively temper the visceral and aggressive intensity of the story's well-staged action sequences with moments of sensitivity. Doug - wearing a skull mask and a dreadlocks wig - is more insightful and receptive than his obviously frightening appearance. Rather than further inflict the violent aggression of his colleagues upon the manager and the other hostages, he is able to engage and recognise their pain.

One of the most highly acclaimed films of the year (Filmink's Julian Shaw calls it a "a pulpy, bracing and rapid-fire heist thriller"), The Town has elicited comparisons to recent Boston crime films like The Departed and Gone Baby Gone, but a more accurate association would be his and Matt Damon's Oscar-winning screenplay Good Will Hunting. Now, his new film is not as good as that film (or his superb directorial debut), as it is more focused on filmic conventions and genre-orientated storytelling than his previous efforts. However, like his debut, Oscar-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting, Affleck is interested in the working-class environment of Boston and his adaptation - with co-writers Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard - of Chuck Hogan's Prince of Thieves allows the Boston-born filmmaker to explore his previously-developed concerns of escape and redemption in a major studio picture.  

Even more so than math-genius Will in Good Will Hunting, Doug is looking to change his life and circumstances, understanding the destructive influence of his present lifestyle upon himself and others. Unlike his crew - especially the frighteningly loyal Jem, who has become increasingly unstable after a stint in prison, holding Claire for ransom in the first scene - he is burdened by guilt and remorse for his actions, recognising the fear and pain he is inflicting upon others with his work. When Doug meets Claire for the second time ostensibly to intimidate her into silence, he instead empathises with her obvious struggle with post-traumatic stress, and then falls for her. His guilt grows into engagement and then love as he witnesses the destabilising effect of his actions.  

Thus, the film is an unlikely love story between criminal and victim. The Town becomes a story of mutual pain and empathy as depicted by Affleck, as both Doug and Claire divulge their most shattering experiences to one another. The relationship allows both to heal from their traumatic experiences: Claire breaks down in tears when they first meet, but slowly begins to trust, accept and love this seemingly charming man whilst Claire's vulnerability allows Doug to open up and perform a positive, almost-chivalrous act for the first time in his life.

Since his father was jailed for several life sentences for killing a security guard, Doug has been tied down by the poisonous relationships in his life, especially with on-off girlfriend and Jem's sister, the troubled Krista (Blake Lively), and the domineering crime boss (a sinuous Pete Postlethwaite). Doug's friends and colleagues are looking to control him: in a cameo appearance from Chris Cooper as Doug's father, he dismisses his son's desire to leave Boston, telling Doug to make a change instead.

But Claire - a non-regionally specific outsider to Boston who spends her time volunteering - represents positive change in Doug's life (it is notable that a British actress plays the role of the hero's saviour and lover, given fellow Brit Minnie Driver performed the same function in Good Will Hunting). Linked by their respective longing to change their circumstances and improve their lives - the image of a plane is a recurring motif in key scenes for Doug and Claire - Doug sees the beautiful outsider as a way of improving his life. He tells her, 'People get up every day and tell themselves they are going to change their lives. They never do. I am going to change mine.'

Although not as powerful as Gone Baby Gone, Affleck intelligently readdresses familiar themes in the poignant The Town, intelligently connecting with the problematic, harmful influences of selfish love and destructive behavioural patterns.

The Town is the cover story for the November issue of Filmink, which will be available on October 18, 2010.