The Town

[eee1313]

Last night the Scientist and I went to see The Town. Hot damn, that was a good movie. Seriously, that was a really, really good movie. I highly recommend it if you're interested in movies about bank robbers, Boston, people with internal turmoil, people stuck between a rock and a hard place, and/or Jeremy Renner being a COMPLETE PSYCHOPATH. I had heard this was a good movie, but was rather "meh" about seeing it, as lots of times dramas like this don't pull me in all that much. However, this one (at least in my opinion) stands up to all the hype. It's good.

My only complaint was this: both of us had a hard time understanding what the actors were saying for the first 10 minutes of the movie. It might have been due to a lot of whispering, or the thick Boston accent, or maybe the levels on the soundtrack were off. But honestly, at times subtitles would have helped. I'm actually looking forward to this on DVD, if only so that we CAN understand a lot of the hushed conversations.

ETA: Spoilers in the comments section.

Comments

[bigboobedcanuck.livejournal.com]

I thought it was really well acted and directed (go, Ben!) but I just have such a difficult time feeling sorry for the criminals. I was rooting for Ben to get caught at the end, because he'd certainly enthusiastically committed enough crimes. My favourite part, hands down, was Jon Hamm's monologue about how he was going to put Ben and co. in prison.

But still, very entertaining and engaging. I just didn't feel as sorry for Ben as I think I was supposed to.

SPOILERS!

[eee1313.livejournal.com]

Right there with you. Obviously, I felt worse for his Doug than I did for Jem. I've read online that a lot of people felt bad when Jem died, which surprised them. I certainly didn't feel bad that he took two in the face -- he totally deserved it! Though that's something to the skill of Renner's acting, that he could make that character sympathetic to some.

I did feel bad that Doug was trapped between a life he wanted out of, and the threats that were coming down on his dad and Claire. Granted, that's the consequence you take when you get involved with a crime boss. They definitely did paint Doug to be a more sympathetic character, what with him not inflicting physical harm against people until it was his only course of escape (the shootout at Fenway, for example). And when he DID kill (the Florist and his lackey), it was justified, IMO.

The two people I felt the most sorry for in this whole ordeal were Claire and Shyne, Krista's baby. That baby was the only real innocent in the entire story, and in the end even that kid's fate isn't secure. (Side note: I learned that in the book, the baby's father is actually the Florist.) Claire was put in a terrible situation by Doug, and while she let him off the hook at the end, I'm glad she used his money to help the community and stayed in Boston, rather than following him like some lovesick kid down to Florida. That seemed more in character with her, and with what she'd gone through.

Re: SPOILERS!

[bigboobedcanuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if Claire had run off with him at the end, I really wouldn't have liked that at all. I loved the actress and she was the most sympathetic character around, along with the baby. Although I did feel for Krista, and Blake Lively did a great job, IMO.

I thought Renner did an amazing job with playing a complete asshole, and I thought he got exactly what he deserved. I'm suprised anyone felt sympathy for him. Huh. I could sympathize with him briefly when it came out that the guy he killed was going to kill Ben, but that only gets him so far.

I find I can sympathize/empathize with people (as I did at times with Ben's character) and still want them to have to pay the consequences for their actions. I don't think he was an evil guy, but he 100% belongs in jail. He wanted out of the life, but he pissed away his chances with hockey. So, you know. Tough shit!