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Gone Baby Gone was certainly a surprise, but not, I think, a hollow one; any shock that Ben Affleck had made such a great fuckin' film could be dispelled by the fact that, two years later and in the light of day, it's still a great fuckin' film. Now we have The Town, which is a kind of victory lap, running the same bag of tricks at the higher level of prestige bought by GBG's success. This is permissible, of course, though hardly optimal.

It's a good high-concept, as high-concepts go; Doug MacRay (Affleck, who also directs and co-writes) and his crew of townies knock off banks. One day, they take a pretty bank manager hostage. Keeping tabs on the girl after the crime to see if she knows anything, Doug falls in love with Claire (and as played by Rebecca Hall, who can blame him?). This turns Doug's thoughts to escape from his nefarious lifestyle as the heat closes in; his partner-in-crime and general sociopath Gem (Jeremy Renner) won't let him. Bang baby bang.

If The Town maps sharply - too sharply - onto Heat, we may be charitable and call it sophomore enthusiasm on Affleck's part. There are also strong, violent echoes of Good Will Hunting, as though Affleck's Chuckie from that film stayed behind in Boston and became a bank robber, and now wants to follow Will on that highway out of town.

But I think the real problem here is simply one of ego, as it relates to The Town's lead character. In Gone Baby Gone, Affleck did a decidedly older-brother thing by casting his younger brother Casey - probably a better actor than Ben, but who's counting - as a hero who consistently gets the piss taken out of him by the degree to which he is in way over his head investigating a crime beyond his experience. The result was a sort of cinematic sibling ball-busting, a complete lack of preciousness with the character, that worked wonders for GBG's likeability and sense of drama.

In The Town, though, Affleck Sr. has cast himself as the lead role, and a honey of a lead role it is - reluctant villain, yearning hero, romantic rogue, etc. etc. etc. Ben should have resisted the boost here: he can't bring himself to take the mickey the way he undercut Casey, and the result is a story that is Just So God Damned Earnest that it needs to swing for much higher dramatic stakes than it ultimately can achieve. In other words, Affleck has given himself a real moviestar role here, in a movie that desperately needs a substantial character performance. I don't think he's incapable of the latter, by the way. Just that he's gone the wrong way in The Town.

The most interesting element of the story - the awkward romance between thief and hostage - gets lost as the film proceeds, and The Town becomes more interested in setting up the three-way stalemate between Doug, Gem, and the requisite FBI heavy (Jon Hamm), none of whom are operating at the De Niro / Kilmer / Pacino level to which they aspire. There are bloodless shoot-em-ups, a few too many to make logical sense (really - if you had this much heat on you, would you respond by staging two more enormous heists?), and a lot of loving, longing shots of Boston.

It all feels safe and packaged, and ultimately undramatic. Affleck's a good shooter and has a great sense for casting, whenever he's not casting himself (anyone who uses Titus Welliver in two consecutive films is fine in my book), but turning triple-threat overwhelmed him here. Better to focus on smaller things. There's more than enough Hollywood crap already.