What I Watched -- The Town

I haven't seen Gone Baby Gone, but if The Town is a fair representation, I have to admit that Ben Affleck has some directing chops.

This is, make no mistake, a bank heist movie.  That's the main premise, so don't expect too much.  But mixed in is some goofy romance (and - MILD SPOILER ALERT - an appropriately cheesy ending), as well as some not-so-goofy bromance.  The bros are Doug (Ben Affleck) and Jem (Jeremy Renner, whom I loved in The Hurt Locker).  They grew up together in Charlestown (the "Town" of the title); Jem's family took Doug in after Doug's father (a bit part played by Chris Cooper who, by the way, studied theater and agriculture (!) at Mizzou) went away for bank robbery.  It's a family business in that neighborhood, and Doug has built his own four-man team to pick up where his dad left off.  Doug's the clear leader, but Jem is the more interesting character.  Aside from a few references to a possibly complicated relationship with Jem's sister Krista (played by a normally lovely but here very drunk-looking Blake Lively), Doug is pretty flat as a character.  Jem, on the other hand, keeps you on the edge of your seat, if only because watching him is a little bit like watching a train wreck you know is about to happen.  Affleck may have the director's chair, but the acting award goes to Renner, hands down.  Doug falls in love and decides he wants out of the business; Jem convinces him that they need to do this one last, dangerous job.  You can imagine how that all ends.

Now I'm going to have to go back and see Gone Baby Gone, just for comparison's sake.

Bottom line: pretty good, for what it is, and worth seeing now that it's on DVD.  Bonus of seeing Jon Hamm with a firearm rather than a highball glass.  Variety is the spice of life, after all.