Whilst it does take the genre of the heist thriller down the path oft wandered, it does it with quality and something to make this more than your typical heist movie. This is not simply a gang robbing film all about the action. It's a rarity that has as well thought out characters as it does stings. You fly from careering, chaotic chase scenes to slight moments of tenderness with ease never feeling the speed bump in pace and you drive across it.
The older Affleck takes the lead this time round, as experienced but disillusioned thief Doug Mccray. He like many others in his genre, just want to get out of the game a start a fresh, with a nice big bag of cash in hand of course! And the film opens straight into his life of crime as we see the influences the greats of the genre have clearly had on Affleck. The first scene nods towards the opening of Heat, with the group of Catholicly camouflaged crooks robbing a Charlestown Bank, ending with them taking a female bank manager, Rebecca Hall, hostage.
It isn't as immediately as engaging as Gone, Baby, Gone but that's a problem really we can set aside to the genre itself. And whilst the film's central romance between Affleck and his hostage Hall could have been more developed, much like De Niro's enamoured entanglement in Heat, there are so many moving parts to this film that to have all mesh together in one smooth, synchronous action would be a little optimistic. But the film is by no means lacking because of this.
The Town is a strong thriller that lets you engross in the action but in between these set pieces it doesn't sacrifice the narrative. Comparisons with Michael Mann for this sub-type of film are obvious but in this case justified. Although Affleck is not quite there yet, he's certainly on his way!
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