3 Stars

Written and Directed
by Ben Affleck

When we think of Ben Affleck, it's generally of a good-looking, overrated actor who somehow got famous. “How the heck did he win an Oscar®?” Well, he won it for writing. Why he didn't write anything between “Good Will Hunting” and this is easy enough question to answer, he was too busy being a movie star.

But he decided to take a break from his eternal comeback and try once again that thing that brought him so much kudos back in the day. He's managed to actually do it.

Based on the Dennis Lehane novel about two Boston area detectives investigating a little girl's  disappearance, (Affleck and his writing partner Aaron Stockard have created a taut thriller with some interesting plot twists.

While watching reports of a local tragedy, the disappearance of little Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien), Private eye Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend/assistant Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) receive a call from the kid's aunt (Amy Madigan), asking them to get involved with the case as a kind of watchdog to make sure the cops are doing their job. This is something neither Amanda's mother Helene (Amy Ryan) nor the cops particularly appreciate. However, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), the head of the Crimes Against Children unit of the Boston police, knows that they have to cooperate with Patrick and Angie, and orders Detectives Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton) to tell our heroes what they know, which isn't much. Then Patrick begins his own investigation, and discovers not everything is what it seems.

The first thing we learn is that Helene isn't a particularly good mother, and that she has a relationship with a certain drug dealer and stole a large amount of money, this leads one direction, while other info leads to another, and then there's a third, involving the kid's uncle (Titus Welliver) and some unexpected others. There are almost TOO many plot twists, but the blame for that is Lehane, who stuck them in the original book. The acting, meanwhile, is excellent, and Affleck runs a tight ship. Maybe he should stick to this, and give acting a pass.


 

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