Before I saw The Town, I wasn't very fond of Ben Affleck. I pretty much thought that he capitalized on the success of the one good movie he was involved with and then went on to do unintelligent comedies and uninspired dramas in which his presence did nothing but say "Hey, I'm Ben Affleck! I co-wrote Good Will Hunting. Ignore my chain of terrible films. Aren't I the coolest?" But that opinion has been changed with my viewing of The Town. Not only does Affleck star and co-write, but it is also one of his first directorial gigs (Affleck previously directed Gone Baby Gone, which I have not seen, but supposedly is very good). The film is an impressive display of conflicting interests with a suspenseful and dramatic story to tell that struggles with its central character's emotional pathos.The basic plot of the movie centers around Doug MacRay (Affleck), a bank robber with a heart. In the opening scene, he and his teammates are seen in a truck putting on their signature masks and preparing for their next hit. This hit proves successful, as the intensity amps up and they infiltrate a bank's main office, taking hostages and forcing one of the hapless victims to open the vault. This victim is named Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), who later becomes extremely relevant to the plot. But her first appearance is used partially as a way to establish MacRay's better character traits. As he points a gun at Claire, he puts her to the task of opening the bank vault. Sensing her overwhelming panic, he kindly tells her to take her time and breathe: pretty nice for a guy pointing a gun. From this small moment, we immediately get the sense of the type of person Doug is. After he and his teammates leave with their money, they temporarily take Claire hostage, and drop her off blindfolded at a beach.

Back at their house, we now are formally introduced to Doug's buddies: James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), the typical antithesis to Affleck's Doug- he is a murderer and loves his job, not caring at all for the people he hurts; Albert "Gloansy" MacGloane (Slaine); and Desmond Ellen (Owen Burke). These last two characters aren't particularly well developed, but they do their jobs nicely. Doug's relationship with James is established here as rocky, to say the least, but the two nevertheless view each other as brothers.

Speaking of siblings, complicating matters further is Krista Coughlin, (Blake Lively). She is James' sister and the mother of a girl who may be Doug's child, but her relationship with Doug is not particularly important. He is drawn to his former hostage, Claire, instead. Doug finds out that Claire lives four blocks from his house, a situation that becomes worrisome to James, because if she somehow recognizes him as one of her captors and informs the police, it could spell life in prison for all of them. Doug decides to keep an eye on Claire, but after she approaches him in a laundromat, the two of them wind up hitting it off, and Doug falls for her. This relationship sets in motion a series of fascinating events, as Doug and his team are mercilessly hunted by the police, at every moment increasing the difficulty of his life. He experiences pulls from both sides, setting off inner conflicts that cause him to question his entire way of living.

The film's story is expertly crafted by Affleck and co-writers Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard, setting for themselves the rather difficult task of creating a suspenseful heist movie that manages to retain an interesting and motivated central character. Doug is always fascinating, and his struggles feel real to the audience. He remains essentially a good guy, trying to find a way out of the life he has created for himself. Despite his decency, there are some less-than-savory aspects to his character. One thing I didn't care for was Doug's treatment of Krista and their (perhaps) child. He seems to care very little for them, if at all, and this fact certainly detracts from his sympathetic aura. This discrepancy can probably be explained by Doug's relationship with his mother, who apparently ran out on him and his father when he was 6 years old. His father is in prison serving a life sentence. Doug's scene with his father in prison is very well done, with the glass between them serving as a nice metaphor for the wall Doug has built up for himself, sealing him off from his family along with caging himself into a life he cannot easily escape.

Meanwhile, Affleck's direction of the film is superb, showing a level of skill not often found with budding directors. The action pieces during the heist scenes are particularly well-crafted, using a nice variety of angles and close-ups to escalate the tension of each scene. One standout for me was the chase scene midway through the film, where the robbers' van crashes its way through a series of small alleyways with the police in hot pursuit. It should be noted that I absolutely hate chase scenes. I usually find them to be boring, and they waste time that should be spent on plot development. But this scene is an exception: The alleyway chase ends with a particularly satisfying blockade of the police cars. Doug and his boys lather up their van with gasoline, lighting it ablaze and causing an explosion that effectively prevents the cops from pursuing them. Awesome stuff.

The acting overall is superb. Affleck portrays a gruff, yet conflicted and beaten-down man, weary of his own existence yet helpless to find a way out of it. Again, I must stress that I never liked Affleck as an actor, but here he portrays a depth and emotional range I didn't think was possible. Meanwhile, Hall does a great job with Claire, presenting her vulnerability and anxiety over her predicament with great believability. Renner plays the hard-edged James to perfection. While not a particularly versatile performance, the character is nevertheless straightforward and absolutely believable as a murderous degenerate who will stop at nothing to get the job done. Jon Hamm plays FBI agent Adam Frawley, a man hot on Doug's trail and determined to bring him and his boys to justice. While again not a particularly interesting character, Hamm portrays him to the best of his ability. Pete Postlethwhaite does a nice job as the despicable Fergie, a flower store owner who secretly runs Doug's gang.

If there's one thing I didn't like about the film, other than Doug's mistreatment of his ex, it's that the story doesn't really break any new ground. It's a genre and style that's been done to death. Nevertheless, the film works extremely well with its territory, and if it doesn't innovate, it certainly takes what it has and perfects it. Affleck deserves great praise for creating The Town. For me, his biggest accomplishment is that he managed to take an unsavory opinion such as mine and turn it completely around. I'm sure others would testify to similar opinions. Congratulations Ben: As it turns out, you really are the coolest.