Director, don't direct thyself : Ben Affleck and The Town

"The Town" gets off the a great start with a very exciting bank-vault robbery well-paced and almost choreographed. Thought the rest of Ben Affleck's movie doesn't live up to the opening scene, it's a pretty entertaining film on the very familiar ground of the heist movie. The gang of four guys from Charlestown (Boston neighborhood of course - Affleck remains committed to doing interesting movies in Boston, and I admire him for that) pulls off three heists during the film, the last being the most imaginative, a robbery of the day's cash till at Fenway Park. Every fan has yearned to see the park from the inside, behind the scoreboard, etc., and Affleck got full access apparently - I'm amazed that John Henry agreed, but have to believe their security isn't as antiquated as the film would lead us to think. The strength of the film is a strong performance from rising star Rebecca Hall, who is great but is in danger of settling into a narrow range of type (intelligent young woman with weak self-image, q.v. Please Give) and a clever plot setup: Affleck is monitoring Hall as she is a robbery witness (actually they held her hostage then let her go, totally improbably), and he falls for her. She doesn't know he's in the gang that held up her bank. If you can believe this for two seconds, good for you, but you're better off completely suspending disbelief and letting the story unfold. Would have been stronger had Hall actually made the discovery on her own instead of being told by FBI agent John (Mad Man) Hamm. Affleck is wildly unsuited for the part of Charlestown thug and should never have agreed to direct himself - probably nobody should do that except in a comedy - as he allows himself to indulge in extensive monologues that cry out to be cut. Did the gang of four remind anyone else of the foursome in Entourage? If so, which group was more fearsome? Overall, The Town is a movie that breaks no new ground but is pretty entertaining for 2 hours.