The Town (2010 film): Difference between revisions

2010 American crime drama film directed by Ben Affleck

The Town is a 2010 American crime thriller film co-written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, adapted from Chuck Hogan‘s 2004 novel Prince of Thieves.^[3][4] It also stars Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper and Slaine, and follows a Boston bank robber who begins to develop romantic feelings for a victim of one of his previous robberies, while he and his crew set out to get one final score by robbing Fenway Park.

The film premiered on September 8, 2010, at the Venice Film Festival before being released in the United States on September 17, 2010. Based on actual events, it received praise from critics for its direction, screenplay, editing, and the performances of the cast (particularly Renner) and grossed $154 million worldwide. The film was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2010, while Renner was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor^[5] and Postlethwaite was posthumously nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[6]

Four lifelong friends from the neighborhood of Charlestown, Boston, Douglas “Doug” MacRay, James “Jem” Coughlin, Albert “Gloansy” MacGloan, and Desmond “Dez” Elden, rob a bank wearing masks. Against Doug’s wishes, Jem takes bank manager Claire Keesey hostage but later releases her unharmed.

After finding out that Claire lives in their neighborhood, Doug follows her to find out how much she has told the police and to ensure that Jem does not eliminate her as a witness. Soon, a romance grows between them, which Doug hides from the gang. Claire does not realize Doug was one of the robbers.

Doug tells Claire of his search for his long-lost mother, who he believes went to live with his aunt in Tangerine, Florida. He also talks about how he almost became a professional ice hockey player before he threw it away to follow in his father’s footsteps as a bank robber. Claire tells Doug she saw a tattoo on one of the robbers but did not tell the FBI, and he realizes that she can identify Jem and send them all to prison.

Doug knows that Jem will kill her if he knows, so to dissuade her from talking, Doug tells her that if she tells the police, they will put her in witness protection and send her to live in another state. His plan works, and she does not talk.

FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley recognizes their ties to local Irish mobster Fergus “Fergie” Colm, who moonlights as a florist. During a visit to his father, Stephen, in prison, Doug shares his plan to leave Boston for Florida. Their next job, an armored car robbery in the North End, goes awry, and they barely escape. Frawley interrogates them but is forced to release them after failing to get confessions.

Doug asks Claire to go away with him, and she accepts. When Frawley learns Claire quit her job, he taps her phone, shows his file on Doug to her, and threatens to prosecute her as an accomplice. Shocked and distraught that Doug was one of her assailants, she cooperates with the FBI and breaks up with him.

Doug tries to back out of the next heist at Fenway Park. Angered, Jem fights with him and says that he is in too deep to walk away. Fergie then threatens to kill Claire if Doug does not do the job, and he reveals to him that he controlled his father by making his mother an addict, which led to her committing suicide. Doug reluctantly agrees to do the heist but swears that he will kill Fergie if anything happens to Claire.

At Fenway, Doug and Jem enter disguised as Boston police officers, steal $3,500,000 in gate cash, and prepare to escape in an ambulance while disguised as paramedics. The FBI, having received information from Doug’s ex-girlfriend and Jem’s single-mom sister Krista, whom Frawley had threatened, surround the perimeter with the Boston police and State police. Caught in a shootout with FBI SWAT agents, Dez and Gloansy are killed. Frawley spots Jem and they exchange gunfire in which Jem is wounded and takes cover. Determined to not go back to prison, Jem commits suicide by cop by running out with empty guns in hand.

Knowing that Claire is in danger and that he will never escape as long as Fergie is alive, Doug kills both him and his bodyguard Rusty, and calls Claire. Watching from across the street via binoculars, he sees the FBI are with her as she tells him to come over. At first, he thinks she means to betray him, but she gives a clue verbally to warn him away. Doug flees by donning an MBTA uniform from his uncle whom he leaves some money and escaping on a train. Frawley deduces that Claire tipped him off, but her tip is too cryptic to provide grounds for an arrest.

Later, while she is gardening, Claire finds a buried bag containing money, a tangerine, and a note from Doug that suggests that she can make better use of the money than he can and that they might see each other again. Claire donates the money, in memory of…