A thought-provoking movie that doesn't duck the issues

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2008)

I'm still ambivalent about this movie. There's questions about the plotting that mean I'll really need to watch it again - at least that won't be so tough an ask as it is with the bulk of the movies I see.
The one thing that I do immediately give the writers and makers of this film credit for, though, is for taking on complex issues up-front, and not ducking and hiding from them, or finding convenient coincidences to ease difficult decisions. They face up to the questions of, say, the sort of people who shouldn't be allowed to have children even if they were the last people on earth, of the value of the life of even the lowest coke-dealing, drug addict, child molesting scum, and of just why it is that so many children are left in, or given back, to the care of parents like these. I've never been able to understand the thought processes of government bureaucrats and court arbiters and police who make and enforce the decisions that see screaming children torn from the arms of loving grandparents or carers to be handed back to aggressive, drug or alcohol affected parents, only for, predictably, those same kids to turn up dead or brain damaged in a short space of time. Casey Affleck's character's explanation for his actions makes a stab at explaining why such decisions get made, and sure enough, mistaken and all as they might be, at least they're made in good conscience.
Whether that excuses them is another matter. Casey manages to shatter the lives of himself and his girlfriend, of Lionel and Bea, and of Doyle and his wife, while not providing any conceivable benefit to the little girl. In fact, the final scene seems to point to her long-term detriment. Does he wonder about the correctness of his decision? We can only wonder too.
The film was fascinating, thought-provoking, well-made and well-acted. It's the best Ed Harris performance I've seen for a while, and Casey Affleck was very good, although it'd be nice to see Michelle Monaghan get a role that didn't just require her to look pretty (which she is, of course). An 8/10.