If “Gone Baby Gone” wasn’t proof enough that Ben Affleck could be a real filmmaker, here comes “The Town” to further establish his credentials – and to reestablish him as a strong, vulnerable leading man.

Gripping and moving at the same time, “The Town” is a solid heist movie whose fleshed-out characters give the story the weight it requires to be more than just a caper film.

Based on a novel by Chuck Hogan (and adapted by Affleck, Aaron Stockard and Peter Craig), “The Town” is about a crew of armored-car and bank robbers, led by Doug MacRay (Affleck), who all hail from the Charlestown neighborhood in Boston – supposedly the area of the U.S. that produces the most bank robbers per capita.

But something happens on the job that opens the film: Doug falls for Claire (Rebecca Hall), the bank manager, who they take hostage – briefly – because someone triggered the silent alarm. They release her unharmed, but Doug’s excitable partner Jem (Jeremy Renner), is afraid she’ll somehow implicate them to the FBI. He wants to eliminate her but Doug has other ideas. 

Though supposedly assessing her as a threat, Doug instead finds himself drawn to her. So post-robbery and sans disguise, he maneuvers himself into a position to ask her out