A director who casts himself in the lead role of his own film may be subject to sharp criticism and charges of egomania (See Mel Gibson in “Braveheart” or Kevin Costner in “Dances With Wolves”). Instead of butting heads with a director who wants to bring out your ugly side for dramatic effect leading to inevitable, out-of-context, surreptitious TMZ photographs, you can simply light and and shoot yourself in the most favorable way possible. Majestic close-ups of yourself squinting determinedly into the distance, wild love scenes with the prettiest actress in the film and the privilege of delivering the marquee lines written by that thankless screenwriter know one will ever know the name of. These are the perks of directing yourself in a Hollywood blockbuster.

But Ben Affleck, once derided as the talentless half of the Oscar-winning Damon/Affleck tandem, has fleeting interest in self-promotion. His decision to step behind the camera, thus revealing his true talents, set in motion the rehabilitation of his artistic persona. “The Town” is expertly crafted by a filmmaker who seems genuinely interested in making emotionally honest commercial cinema. And the burgeoning master director’s artistic rehabilitation, which began with his gripping directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone,” is now complete.

Charlestown, a working class slum at the north end of Boston, is “The Town.” Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) and his longtime friends James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert “Gloansy” Magloan (Slaine) and Desmond “Dez” Elden (Owen Burke) are among the many gangs of bank robbers and other ne’er-do-wells who call The Town home.   During the first bank job the gang takes bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) hostage.  After she is released, unharmed but severely traumatized, Doug follows her and strikes up a relationship with the unsuspecting victim against the wishes of his gang and his better judgment.  What follows is a serpentine thriller of dizzying action and brutal violence augmented by subtle themes of trust and moral relativity.

“The Town” is 125 minutes well spent.  The pace is taught, the feeling tense.  Affleck is okay in the lead, but the cast that surrounds him is magnificent.  Jeremy Renner brilliantly plays the evil twin to his compulsive hero character in “The Hurt Locker.”  Chris Cooper makes any movie he’s in better.  ”Gossip Girl’s” Blake Lively is a joy as the slutty girlfriend with an inconsistent Boston accent.  And Jon Hamm, forever tied to the archetypal Don Draper in AMC’s “Mad Men” effectively sheds that cumbersome mantle as the FBI agent pursuing Affleck’s band of merry mobsters.  A feat by any measuring stick.

But while “The Town” is thrilling and more competent than just about everything else in the studio realm this year, it lacks the depth of Affleck’s first film, approaches violence with child-like catharsis and promotes a truly warped sense of justice and morality.  ”The Town” is a genre film with a blockbuster budget.  While fun to watch, it lacks the growth one might expect in the second film from the director of “Gone Baby Gone.”