The Town (2010) * * *

Directed by:  Ben Affleck

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite

The Town is Ben Affleck's second movie as a director.    His first was the successful Gone Baby Gone, which showed Affleck's ability to pace and keep us intrigued.     The Town operates in much the same fashion.    It is a well-made and well-acted thriller.    I liked it, but didn't love it.     Despite all of its plusses, something prevented me from fully embracing the film.     What was it?    I think it's because I wasn't all that much moved when The Town concluded.     The human stakes weren't high enough to completely engross me.

Affleck also stars in The Town as Doug McCray, a lifelong bank robber who specializes in pulling off well-executed, well-planned heists that leave no DNA traces and little evidence.     His father (Chris Cooper) is in jail for life and Doug doesn't want to end his life in the same fashion.     He expects the heist pulled at the film's outset to be his last, but his partner Jem (Renner) riskily takes the bank's manager Claire (Hall) hostage.    She is blindfolded and let go, but she can possibly still identify them since she also lives in the same section of Boston as the thieves. 

Doug agrees to track down Claire and get to know her, finding out what she knows.     They fall in love, which concerns Jem and the rest of the crew since she could get them pinched.     Also on the crew's tail is FBI agent Adam Frawley (Hamm), who specializes in being a hard-nosed prick.    In a small area like "The Town", short for Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, it is difficult to keep your life as a criminal a secret.     Frawley suspects Doug, but can't gather enough evidence to hold him.    "Unless he converts to Islam, we won't be able to get 24-hour surveillance on him,"  says Frawley.

The Town has a good sense of where these people live and where there lives are stuck.    These are hard-nosed criminals whose upbringing doesn't allow them much training for anything else.     Doug has the foresight to acknowledge his life's limitations and plans an escape.    Jem and Claire complicate those matters.     Jem talks Doug into one last job knocking over Fenway Park.     Doug feels a sense of loyalty to Jem, mostly because Jem killed someone who was targeting Doug.    ("You don't have to thank me, but you ain't walking away.")

The theme of a criminal trying to go straight is a universal one.    Affleck plays Doug as efficient and street-smart, but I get the feeling he feels his life would've been better off if he had never met Claire.    Since that is the gnawing suspicion I have, the entire subplot doesn't work.    Claire is not a convincing catalyst for change in Doug, but just a hurdle he must overcome to escape his surroundings.     Hall is a fine actress, but her character ultimately isn't necessary.    

Renner received an Oscar nomination for his work as the unpredictable wildcard Jem.    He seems the most threatening, mostly because he is nervous about being caught.    When it comes to dealing with Jem, Doug treads carefully and we understand why.    His performance has the most manic energy.    I also enjoyed the ruthlessness of Jon Hamm as Frawley, which makes us forget that he is the law and order guy in this equation.

Overall, The Town was a satisfying thriller that never quite achieves greatness.     There is plenty of action and shoot-'em-ups, which are done well enough, but in the end how much do we really care?    Let's say The Town is two-thirds of the way to being a great film.