Ben Affleck gives a solid performance both as an actor and a director in this gritty bank heist movie which examines the criminal underbelly of a section of Boston known as Charlestown. Charlestown is singularly famous for the number of bank robbers who have lived here, so maybe I should suggest that the town is more prison collar than blue collar. Bank robbery has become the career of choice with fathers passing the secrets of the trade on to their sons almost as if it were a guild membership. 

The movie opens at the beginning of another bank heist, which proceeds with military precision until things goes slightly awry. One of the robbers, later found out to be James Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), brutalizes a bank employee and then grabs the bank manager as a hostage, neither of which has been done before. Although they later let her go, they are now facing a kidnapping rap on top of all the other charges. 

Dressed in black with masks of Halloween nuns, the robbers clean all traces of themselves out of the stolen getaway van before torching it.  This has been their genius, which is that they leave no DNA or clues at the scenes of their crimes. The Boston Police and the FBI may suspect who they are, but they never have any proof.

While Coughlin is the most compelling character in the movie as something of a loose cannon besides being an angry young man for having spent almost a decade in prison, the hero, the anti-hero, of the film is the leader of the gang, Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck). MacRay is the brains behind the jobs who keeps the other three in line. He is also the son of a bank robber (Chris Cooper), and he occasionally visits his dad in prison for stilted conversations that both know are recorded.

Doug is smart enough to know that his good luck can't last forever. He is tired and he would like to get out of the family business, but no one else is ready to call it quits, least of all James Coughlin, who feels that his years in the stir demand a pay back. Likewise his younger sister Krista Coughlan (Blake Lively), who once had a fling with Doug and still carries a torch for him. Krista has a young son that she feels belongs to Doug, but Doug is smart enough to know that she had slept around. Krista still "takes care" of Doug, but it is clear that he has no feelings for her.

Fergie Colm (Pete Postlethwaite), another Charlestown criminal involved in the heists, organizes them from a flower shop. He picks the target, gets the plans for Doug, and gets paid handsomely in the process. While the other gang members can bluster, it is Fergie who can threaten Doug with death if he tries to leave the family business. 

Doug's sense of entrapment is greatly exacerbated by that hostage who they had taken during the earlier heist. When they find out that she also lives in Charlestown, the gang members believe that she is a liability who needs to be iced. Doug volunteers, but after he chats her up at a local laundromat, he sees everything that he could have had if he had gone straight. 

Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) is a bank manager and a volunteer at the impoverished local youth center and an area community garden. She represents the possible attainable ideal for him as long as she never finds out who he really is. Her not finding out is not likely to last long, as his fellow gang members don't take kindly to him romancing a possible witness, the FBI agent (Jon Hamm from "Mad Men") leading the investigation tries to play her for evidence, and Fergie knows that threatening her could be his ace in the hole to keep Doug in the family business. The movie becomes a personal battleground for Doug between his future ideal and the grim reality and illegality of his present.

A very fine movie but not a perfect movie as it is too long with too many scenes involving extended bank heists which quickly wear thin. Another annoying flaw is that many of the actors affect Boston accents with the result that their conversations are rendered unintelligible due to their proclivity to mumble. Nonetheless, this is quite a coup for Ben Affleck as a director after his earlier 2007 debut in directing for "Gone, Baby, Gone." 

The one time butt of jokes for some of his roles and his media-drenched romantic relationships has cut his chops and shown that he is much more than a pretty face. Additional compliments can be given to the stellar cast, especially the costar, Rebecca Hall. Hall has quietly built a very impressive resumé for her work in films like this one, "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona," and "Frost/Nixon." All of the other costars deserve kudos as well for a nearly flawless cast. 125 minutes and rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexuality, and drug use.