Hey, folks, I'm in the mood to post this, so here I am. I recognize the fact that most people really like Ben Affleck's most recent movie, The Town, and I wanted to like it, too, but imho, there's too much wrong with The Town for me not to look at this film with much harsher judgement and a much more critical eye than many, if not most people.
I admittedly liked Ben Affleck a lot in Good Will Hunting. He and Matt Damon also did a great job working together in this particular movie. Good Will Hunting, imo, is a good film that really worked. However, I think that Ben Affleck fell badly on The Town, and part if it is probably due to the fact that he took on two jobs; directing and playing the lead character.
Imho, The Town is an overrated, cheesy piece of junk that's more like a feature-length made-for TV soap opera than a regular movie, which never, ever should've made it into the cinemas at all, in the first place. Yet, I realize that, in order to get the democratic society that we all long for, different viewpoints have to be aired, no matter how much at odds they may be with each other. .
The cast is mediocre at best, the plot and story are overused, the Boston accents, especially on the part of Ben Affleck, are forced and way overdone, and the chemistry between Doug and Claire is non-existent to paltry, at best. One of the most, if not the most bothersome aspects of The Town is the message that it clearly conveys; that it's okay to steal and rob innocent people of money that they don't deserve to lose, to terrorize, permanently maim, put innocent bank employees and customers' lives and safety at risk, to abet an armed felon and wanted fugitive (Doug MacRay, the ringleader)to escape the law by getting involved romantically with him, allow him to buy expensive Tiffany diamond necklaces for one, and make utter dupes of law enforcement people who've been assigned to bring guys like Doug MacRay to justice and end their robbery careers once and for all, by lying to the Feds, and tipping an armed felon and wanted fugitive (Doug MacRay) off to them and helping them escape. I think it's totally wrong.
Oh, and why is it okay for good-girl Claire to receive stolen goods and spend that ill-gotten money on the renovation of a seedy hockey rink and dedicate it to her criminal boyfriend's mother who she never knew, instead of arranging to turn it into the police anonymously?
Hey...come on! Doug put the romance moves on Claire when he met her, in order to shut her up and warn her oh, so subtely not to talk to the Feds or else! One's supposed to think that Doug really loves Claire and is attrracted to her by her winsome personality, but nothing could be further from the truth, imo. He found Claire attractive, in that she was clearly vulnerable after being traumatized by him and his guys after they held up her bank at gunpoint, and therefore quite gullible and open to exploitation. Almost as soon as Doug got what he wanted out of Claire (a promise not to go to the cops or the Feds), he left the money in her garden and skipped town for Florida, because he was on the lam from the law and couldn't elope with Claire and exploit her as a bargaining chip, the way he'd wanted to do. Yet, there's another reason why Doug left Claire behind when he skipped town for Florida instead of taking her with him; Doug's days of hiding out down in Florida in a house overlooking a bayou were numbered, that sooner or later he'd be hunted down and caught, perhaps violently, by the Feds, and either sent to prison or gunned down by the law. Doug and Claire had to have known that, at some level. It was especially obvious when FBI Agt. Frawley said to Claire "You know the FBI is a national organization", and then requested that the descriptions and photos of Doug MacRay be circulated. Isn't it funny how the vast majority of people, either naively or in willful ignorance, miss all of the above!
It's funny how most people don't realize that Doug was a sociopath who totally exploited the women in his life; Krista for sex, and he left her with nothing, even though he knew she had a young child to take care of (who might or might not be Doug's), and Claire, who he thought he could elope to Florida with, but could not, after having charmed her into trusting him and then worming his way into her heart so that she'd shut up and not talk to the Feds. One is supposed to sympathize with both Doug and Claire, but, in reality, neither of them deserved any sympathy.
Imho, when the Feds had Claire and Doug meet at her Charlestown condo in a last-ditch effort to nab Doug MacRay and send him off to a Federal penitentiary for his crimes, the Feds should've made Claire keep her big fat trap shut, not call Doug or answer any of his phone calls, and let them do their job of arresting Doug and bringing him to prison for his crimes.
Doug deserved to end up in a federal penitentiary for his crimes, and Claire deserved to be criminally prosecuted herself, or at least put on some sort of probation for abetting Doug and for receiving stolen goods (Doug's illl-gotten heist money).
I'm sorry, folks, but I cannot bring myself to be sympathetic to either Doug or Claire, who, imho, turned out to be the most dislikable, and annoying characters in The Town. I also think the fact that Claire quit her job as a bank manager after the robbery without telling anybody, including the Feds, is also rather suspicious. What most people don't realize is that Doug is an armed felon and wanted fugitive who's on the lam from the law, so he's not going to Florida on vacation. Happily, there's no way that he and Claire will ever meet again, which is what the final "I'll see you again, this side or the other" sentence in Doug's "goodbye, I'll always love you" letter to Claire before he skipped town for Florida means, but the fact that Claire didn't turn to Frawley for help after learning the truth about Doug and reallizing that she was in over her head, is beyond stupid, and wrong.
The fact that Doug and Jem beat the crap out of two Dominicans from a housing project who'd supposedly thrown bottles at Claire when she'd been stupid enough to walk by herself through a housing project (no woman in her right mind would do that, at any time of night or day) and permanently cripple them, especially since they didn't even tell the two Dominicans why they are beating him up, shows that underneath that smooth, sweet-talking, gentle veneer of his, Doug, as well as Jem, is a man of unprovoked violence, and more like his incarcerated father (who, btw, is serving several life sentences in MCI-Cedar Junction for bank robbery and murder) than he would've liked to admit. My, my! .Lady Claire must've felt flattered that two armed felons who were also wanted fugitives from the law came to her defense! Pretty sickening, this whole thing.
