The Town: The Jury's In!

I had a fabulous weekend- went up north to central VT with my movie-going lady friends to visit our friend Karen who just bought a new home. It was a lovely weekend with the foliage peaking early in Vermont due to the dry summer and the colors are just beautiful. Some of the nicest I've seen in years. Karen's house is perfect for her, very comfortable and even her shy cat came out to say hello.

Since we're movie going people, of course we had movies on the mind. We promptly hied ourselves out to the Stowe Cinema to see The Town. (Did you know the theatre in Stowe serves alcoholic beverages?) But beware, it doesn't take credit cards. It's a nice theatre, the one we were in was small, but comfortable. No drink holders but there was a divider and we had a half wall in front of us which served a wonderful purpose- no one was in front of us to block our view and we could put our drinks on it. Of course, the movie wasn't crowded so we didn't have to worry about our view. Now, on to the movie, or at least background.

The Town is set in Boston and focuses on men who grew up and still live in Charlestown, a neighborhood of Boston. It is where the navy yard is (and the Constitution-the boat, not the document). Also the Bunker Hill Monument, even though the battle was fought on Breed's Hill. The buildings and architecture are quite lovely, the brownstone and brick townhouses and rowhouses are gorgeous. Upon restoration, quite desirable to those who want to live near Boston Proper.

A few other factoids:

• Around the 1860's, an influx of Irish immigrants arrived in Charlestown.  The neighborhood remained an Irish stronghold in the cultural, economic, and Catholic tradition. 
•  Throughout the 1960s until the middle 1990s, Charlestown was infamous for its Irish Mob Presence.  
• Charlestown's McLaughlin Brothers were involved in a gang war with neighboring Somerville's Winter Hill Gang, during the Irish Mob Wars of the 1960s.  
• On a summer night in 1992, George Sargent, 43, was shot to death outside a pizza parlor in Charlestown, Massachusetts. A few days earlier, he had provided information to police concerning criminal dealings in the neighborhood. As he lay dead on the sidewalk, no one called the police, and no one admitted to seeing the shooting. This response to the murder was typical in Charlestown. Members of the community were unwilling to share information that would facilitate homicide investigations because of their reliance on vigilante justice, fear of retaliation by criminals, and anti-police sentiment.  This is known as the code of silence.
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  This unspoken “code of silence” made homicide investigations extremely difficult. Between 1975 and 1992, Charlestown experienced 49 murders, 33 of which were not solved. The community was being overrun by the “Irish Mob,” a group of violent career criminals who ran a major PCP and cocaine distribution center. Because intimidated citizens upheld the code of silence, these drug traffickers were able to operate with virtual impunity.
  
  

Ben Affleck is the ringleader of a group of robbers who focus on armored trucks and occasionally a bank. Joining him is Jeremy Renner, recently released from a nine year stint in jail, a stalwart who truly enjoys his employment and eager to continue working. The other members of the group appear to be along for the ride, journeymen robbers, if you will.  The trouble begins when the gang robs a bank.  Jeremy Renner's character believes that the bank manager saw him.  Things go awry from there.  If I go on, I'll just spoil the plot for you and I don't want to do that.

I found there were several flaws with the movie.  Starting with the most obvious:

Ben Affleck still can't act.

Jon Hamm's talent is wasted as the FBI agent.   His part is poorly written and wooden.

The premise, or lack of one, that causes the FBI agent to focus on Ben Affleck's group.

The connection between Fergus the Florist (Pete Postlethwaite) and Ben Affleck's gang is unclear or indistinct.  This is due to either poor writing and directing or the very poor accents making the dialogue difficult to understand.  This was a problem throughout the film.

Poor direction:  Case in point.  During a scene between Affleck and Renner (who was the best thing in the film and brought it up a level in my opinion), they are having a very heated discussion.  Normally during this type of discussion, both parties talk over one another.  Here, they politely waited for each other to finish their sentences.  Very unnatural.

The best part of the film was trying to recognize all the places were the filming took place.  Especially fun was recognizing the florist, which is around the corner from my place of employment.  Many other sites were familiar as well.    Other than that, the movie was, as my late husband used to say, better than a nail in the foot.  I give it a B-.  Mostly because Jeremy Renner was so good.