Review – The Town

Boston native Ben Affleck directs and stars, leaving me wondering if people from his hometown really do live the criminal mook stereotype lifestyle Hollywood ascribes to them. The picture sports solid production values but suffers greatly from the assumption that armed robbers who menace working folks and kill law enforcement officers will naturally appeal to audiences. Affleck plays a typical poor-boy-criminal-just-looking-for-a-way-out who falls in love with a bank employee kidnapped during one of his crew’s heists. My interest waned after only 40 minutes, so thank goodness the thing didn’t go for its original four-hour running time. Mildly amusing