When the trailer for this action-heist movie was first shown, people came to two conclusions. The first was that this movie had one of the lamest titles for a movie since M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening.” The other was that the trailer gave too much away. It seemed to spoil the twist and ruin another good movie for the public.

In watching “The Town,” however, the drama and plot twists from the trailer are revealed not to be twists at all, merely the jump-off point at the 15-minute mark.

Ben Affleck plays Doug, the leader of a small group of bank robbers that include his off-the-handle brother Jem, played by Jeremy Renner of “The Hurt Locker” fame. When a bank robbery goes wrong, Jem makes a mistake and takes a manager, Claire (Rebecca Hall), as his hostage. Our heroes let her go free, but Doug must make sure that Claire doesn’t remember her captors. She doesn’t, but Doug ends up falling in love with his former hostage. Further complications come when an aggressive FBI agent played by Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”) begins to track Doug and his brother. Doug must also navigate around his listless, casual relationship with Jem’s sister (Blake Lively from “Gossip Girl”), his imprisoned father (Chris Cooper) and a local crime magnet (Pete Postlethwaite).

Ben Affleck now finds himself both in front of and behind the camera in “The Town,” his second directorial attempt after the 2007 critically acclaimed “Gone Baby Gone.” Now he proves his critical success wasn’t just a fluke and that he actually has talent as a filmmaker. He starred, directed and even helped adapt this movie from Chuck Hogan’s novel “Prince of Thieves.” This is Affleck’s first turn as a leading man since his failures at the beginning of last decade, and here, he asserts himself as an actor against a phenomenal supporting cast.

Perhaps one of the year’s best movies, “The Town” never fails to excite. The film twists and turns its way through a few different bank heists and Doug’s relationship with Claire. Each of the robbery scenes is excitingly executed and shows Affleck’s strength as a director. “The Town” faithfully explores the relationship between hostage and criminal, while pushing the theme of change and breaking free from a haunted past. Affleck handles these themes with a surprising ease and a subtle manner that ensures the audience won’t tire of them. The movie also features some of the best acting from Hamm, Hall and Affleck, even though the hilarious and brutal Renner upstages them all.

And now, since Ben Affleck is on the rise, maybe soon we can return to the Ben Affleck of “Good Will Hunting” and forget the Affleck of “Gigli,” “Daredevil” and most of the 2000s.