7. "The Town" (2010)

"No matter how much you change, you still have to pay the price for the things you've done. So I've got a long road. But I know I'll see you again - this side or the other."

(Ben Affleck as Doug MacRay)

"The Town" is a film about four friends who are bank and armored car robbers from the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston. The credits claim that Charlestown has bred more bank and armored car robbers than any other place in the world. As you can imagine, it's a tough neighborhood, where crime is the norm and of course controlled by organized crime syndicates. You get a glimpse into the Irish crime syndicate, run by Fergie the florist. The film is the directorial debut of Ben Affleck, who co-wrote and also stars in the film (he is from Boston, and knows the neighborhood of Charlestown well). "The Town" stars Ben Affleck as Doug Macray, Jeremy Renner as Macray's best friend James Coughlin, Rebecca Hall as bank manager Claire Keesey, and Jon Hamm as FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley. It received one Oscar nomination (Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Jeremy Renner), one BAFTA nomination (Best Supporting Actor - Pete Postlethwaite [Fergie]), five Critic's Choice Awards (Best Acting Ensemble, Best Action Movie, Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor), an Empire Awards (UK) nomination (Best Thriller), a Golden Globe nomination (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Jeremy Renner), and won a National Board of Review Award (Best Ensemble Cast).

The Plot: The film follows four friends from Charlestown. They are career criminals, pulling bank robberies and armored car heists (at one point, Macray tells Claire that he has done six car heists and two bank robberies). The crew pulls a bank robbery at the bank where Claire Keesey is the bank manager. They have her open the vault and then end up taking her with them as insurance because someone (it was Claire, but the crew doesn't know) pulled the silent alarm. They blindfold her and leave her on the beach at Boston Harbor. She talks to the FBI, but cannot really tell them anything; she did see a tattoo on one of them (Coughlin), but she withholds that as a card of leverage (she knows that she would be in serious danger). The crew realizes from Keesey's driver's license (which they took from her) that she lives four blocks from them in Charlestown, which worries them. Coughlin offers to "take care of it," but Macray says he will do it. While he watches her to assess how damaging she might be for them, he begins to fall for her. Claire does not know that Macray is part of the crew who robbed her bank and when she does find out from the FBI agent, she is torn between her feelings for Macray and the betrayal of knowing what he did. Macray's crew pulls several other heists during the film, including an armored car job in which a guard is killed by Coughlin. Macray is an "honest thief" who has never killed or harmed someone in the course of his robberies, so he is angry that Coughlin let his anger get the best of him. Macray wants out of the whole business and to leave with Claire somewhere away from Charlestown and the polluting influence it has had on his life, but Fergie essentially blackmails him into one last job - robbing the cash room at Wrigley Field. They do, but are caught in a police shoot-out in the basement after Coughlin's sister (who loves Macray but is bitter and spiteful that he loves Claire) tells the FBI agent about the job in exchange for him not taking her child away from her after she was found pumped full of alcohol, cocaine and meth. In the end, only Macray escapes from the shoot-out, and he leaves to Florida, leaving money from previous jobs for Claire.

The Criminal Justice System: The FBI agents are portrayed pretty fairly in this film, if not a bit heavy-handed and angry. The task force that Agent Frawley works on is the bank robbery group, so he is well-versed in robberies and schemes of making them work. He is paired with a local from Charlestown, who Macray calls out as a "rat" (it is implied that they know each other and Macray views him as a sell-out). Together, they make it their mission to bring down Macray's crew, especially after the guard is shot and killed. The film does an excellent job showing how the criminal justice system (personified by Frawley) views things in black and white, while the crew personifies the criminal element (and the people who make up the neighborhoods where crime is as regular an occurrence as a child riding a bike to school) and view things as a matter of honor, duty to their neighborhood and family, and loyalty to family and friends. It portrays the FBI as not caring about the circumstances which form a criminal, but rather the fact that a criminal is simply a criminal. Claire Keesey works in a community garden, volunteers at the Boys and Girls' Club, and doesn't care that Macray is a bank robber (one who robbed her own bank, no less) - she sees them as people rather than criminals. This brings to mind the criminological theory of "labeling" - people commit crime because they are labeled as criminal or delinquent. In this context, crime occurs in Charlestown because that's what is assumed when people learn that a person is from Charlestown - "oh, he is just a bank robber or thief." The intro credits state that crime is passed down from father to son, almost like a trade.

This is an excellent film that shows the more human side of criminality, and demonstrates that not all criminals are the same (Macray and Coughlin are often juxtaposed against each other). I first saw this film in Chinatown (DC) after winning tickets on a Facebook contest sponsored by the National Museum of Crime and Punishment.

The theater where we saw the movie

The movie poster at the NMCP

My friend Lisa and I went and were absolutely enamored - and it's always better when it's a preview showing and you see it before everyone else!

Me and Lisa