Using the Genre Approach into Film the Town - Essay Example

Introduction:
‘The Town’ is an American crime drama. The film is directed, starred and also it is co-written by Ben Affleck. The movie is an adaption of the novel, “Prince of Thieves” written by Chuck Hogan. The movie was first released in America in the year 2010 by Warner Bros. The movie revolves around criminal activities. It is a crime drama with action, suspense, and thriller. The central theme of the movie revolves around a young guy who wants to quit the world of crime but during his last attempt, he falls for a girl. The young guy now struggles between keeping his life away from crimes and his love life. But, life has a lot to offer him for this deal. Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, and Rebecca Hall have given outstanding performances with a strong grip on dialogue delivery and with the perfect British-Irish accents. However, the film is categorized under the crime drama but Affleck has tried to put extra effort to make this movie out of the crime culture (Roger Ebert).

Analysis of the movie:
The main character Doug MacRay who is played by Ben Affleck himself is a person who is involved in various criminal activities. James Coughlin is his partner in crime; he is smart enough to use his childhood friend Doug MacRay as a tool to achieve his meandrous goals.

In the first scene of this thriller action-packed crime drama, Jem is shown beating a bank’s employee in a robbery attempt. During this robbery attempt, Jem takes a hostage; the branch manager named Claire whom he releases soon. However, realizing the fact that Claire won’t open her mouth in front of an FBI Special Agent; Jem wants to make sure that she would keep her mouth closed as long as Doug promises that he would take care of her. The scene lacks the basic approach to enhance the real thrill and action in the movie.

The movie is derailed from an action thriller drama to a somewhat romance-action drama that highlights the romance between Doug and Claire. As a director, Affleck has tried his level best to maintain the connection between romance and action. Firstly when he gets the hold on Claire in Laundromat, and secondly, when he tells her how to confront FBI agent, ‘you’re the one who is vulnerable’ and thirdly, in a scene at an outdoor café, when he is on a date with the girl and Jem interrupts his meeting. The dough is now caught between his childhood friendship with Jem and his new love. He holds the tendency of reformation from evil to good. The script moves more around sarcasm and provincialism and less around the basic theme of the drama. The entire structure of the movie is complicated for an average audience to understand. However, the tense thriller and action-filled scenes are the heart of this movie. The director has tried to maintain its position as a thriller-action-packed drama but the story lost its pace due to the light romantic touch which changed the entire theme of the movie and the director failed to keep a well-balanced grip on both sides. However, we can understand that the ‘love side’ of this movie has tried to infuse a different spark in the storyline.

Conclusion:
This movie is an American-action-filled drama that is well-directed and scripted by Ben Affleck. The movie is an adaption of the novel, “Prince of Thieves” and it contains all the necessary elements present in the novel. This is an action-filled movie that holds the sparks of romance in it. The movie revolves around the criminal lifestyle of Charlestown, which is known for its high criminal activities. Love is the only thing that has come into their life of Doug which sweeps him away from the life of crimes. Every character in the movie has given an outstanding performance, especially the performances were given by Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Hall. The robbery and the crime scenes are the best part of the movies. However, Affleck has tried his level best to give an outstanding performance too, but his work as a director, actor, and co-writer confused all his responsibilities and duties towards this movie (Roger Ebert).