Movie review: 'The Town'

Directed by Ben Affleck. Starring Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, Jon Hamm. 125 minutes. Rated R. At Bay Area theaters.

I was never a Ben Affleck hater. Never. I always liked the guy, even when I hated his movies, even when vehicles like "Pearl Harbor" swallowed him in bloat. Beneath all those suffocating layers of stardom was a darn smart filmmaker gasping for air. Four years ago, he poked his head up: as a melancholic George Reeves in "Hollywoodland." Then came his feature directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone," a hardboiled movie about scuzzy doings in Beantown.

Which brings us to "The Town," another gritty Boston drama with a crime-thriller plot, and one more reason for Affleck-bashers to just hush up. Once again, he directed, co-produced and co-wrote the script, but this time he cast himself in the lead. On all four fronts, he proves his mettle, turning out a first-class genre entry stacked with dandy performances and some crackerjack action to boot.

Adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel "Prince of Thieves," "The Town" is named for Charlestown, a neighborhood that's given birth to more bank robbers and armored-car thieves than anywhere else in the world. (So we're told in the opening credits; at the close, we're informed that nice folk live there, too.) It's the third such movie to hit theaters in recent weeks - after "Animal Kingdom," which you should see, and "Takers," which you shouldn't.

As usual, the bandits in question run around in masks. And, as usual, an ashen cloud of romantic doom follows their every move. You just know one of them is going to fall in love. One of them is going to have a short fuse. One of them is going to tire of the life and dream of getting out.

"The Town" sticks to convention. Affleck plays Doug, the one who falls in love, in this case with a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) he helps abduct during the film's opening heist. Jeremy Renner plays Jem, the one with the short fuse - just out of prison. (One of them is always just out of prison.) Between this and his Oscar-nominated performance in "The Hurt Locker," Renner is now the actor of choice for heavily armed post-traumatic cork-popping. There's a grim legitimacy to his despair that gives weight to a formulaic role.

The same goes for "Gossip Girl's" Blake Lively, slurry-voiced, heavy-lidded and borderline unrecognizable as Jem's drug-addled sister. Also on hand are Chris Cooper and Pete Postlethwaite as Doug's scummy, unrepentant Pa and a gnarly old numbers-runner, respectively. (Less memorable, through no fault of his own, is Jon Hamm as the usual FBI agent barking the usual orders.)

But "The Town's" real star is the Hub: Its historic streets are utilized, in all their convoluted glory, for shoot-outs and chase scenes filmed with competent hustle. There's a touch of agitation in Robert Elswit's camerawork, enough to lend an edge of rough-trade authenticity to the proceedings - but not enough to make you seasick. Affleck's direction is clipped when the plot requires, but he lingers on character-driven scenes (at a garden, a restaurant, a corner) in no apparent rush. Why hurry, after all? He's arrived.

-- Advisory: Strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use.

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This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle