After I saw the trailer, I was somewhat expecting a guy movie: chase scenes, lots of guns, cussing, etc. But that isn’t what The Town is. It is a character piece, a love story, wrapped in a heist flick. It also has a great cast. Jeremy Renner plays MacRay’s lifelong buddy Coughlin who’s spent time in prison and seems to lack a moral compass entirely. Rebecca Hall is wonderful as Claire, the bank teller with a heart of gold who is at work as the film begins and is taken hostage by MacRay’s crew during their holdup. Blake Lively turns in a surprising performance as well as Coughlin’s sister, a drugged out single mom who has a thing for MacRay. And then there is nearly too handsome Jon Hamm playing FBI agent Frawley who is just dying to put these guys behind bars for the rest of their lives.

Adapted from Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves, The Town is set in Charlestown, Massachusetts which we are told in the opening is the bank robbery capital of America. This Boston blue-collar neighborhood has been a long-time haven to an Irish-American mob, but now gentrification is bringing in a whole new set of people and Claire is one of them. She works in the bank, lives in a nice row house, and drives a Prius. Set free after her abduction, the robbers begin to worry about what she could tell the FBI. They were wearing masks so she cannot identify them but Coughlin thinks she is a loose end. So MacRay steps up to watch her. But watching turns into meeting turns into dating and inevitably it gets messy. Coughlin finds out and so does the FBI. And MacRay begins to see his “lifestyle” as an obstacle to a future with Claire and decides to get out; only it isn’t so easy. The mob boss (Pete Postlethwaite) demands that he do one last job.

Affleck delivers edge-of-your-seat heist scenes as punctuation for a love story heavily weighed down by the secret MacRay holds. The tensions are intensely palpable. Will he and Claire make it? Will the FBI take him out? Will they make that big score? Will one of his “friends” rat him out? All these plot threads are kept masterfully in the air until the end in a wonderfully written script. The actors are all at the top of their game, especially Jeremy Renner who may just get another Oscar nomination for his role. And Ben Affleck does a terrific job of directing himself which I am sure is no easy task. I’d recommend this movie to just about anyone. The guys will like it for the heists and chases and the chicks for the love story and anyone who likes a really well crafted movie will be more than pleased. There were no false notes.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Robin Wright Penn plays Pippa Lee, a middle-aged woman who’s married to a much older man (Herb, played by Alan Arkin) who decides the couple should live out their remaining years together in a staid retirement community in Connecticut. The change of scenery leaves Pippa with way too much time to ponder who she is and how she got there. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Pippa has not always been the picture of elegance and respectability that she is today. Blake Lively plays the younger, wilder Pippa who broke free from a pill-popping mother and largely absent Christian minister father to make her own way in the world. Her life settles down when she meets and falls in love with Herb (Alan Arkin with a lot more makeup and hair), a successful New York publisher who takes Pippa under his wing and molds her into the seemingly content wife, mother, friend and neighbor that everyone has come to know and love.

The movie was written and directed by Rebecca Miller (daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of British actor Daniel Day Lewis) who also wrote the novel it’s based on. If it’s true that you write what you know, then Ms. Miller may have had quite the interesting childhood. But I digress…

This movie is about relationships, expectations, appearances, and searching for (though not necessarily finding) one’s ‘true self’. It features strong supporting performances from an all-star cast that includes Maria Bello, Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore and Keanu Reeves. It all makes for a bittersweet chick flick that is less fun, but more intellectually stimulating than its bigger box-office cousin, It’s Complicated.