Freak Show with doubtful messages

Rating: 5/10 (6 December 2007)

I was giving Ben Affleck a chance showing better competence as director than he was showing as actor - and I regret it. I was thinking that 8 out of 10 points on the rank was indicating a great movie. The Boston area where the story is set and its inhabitant is staged like a Freak Show for people living in better areas to shudder and be happy to not live there - a tad too much paint I would say. The movie seems to convey several doubtful messages: that child molesters are never stopping their doings anyway - teaming up even, that self-justice is excusable and what is worst - that stealing kids from bad mothers is justified. I haven't read the book, but the movie doesn't seem to want to motivate the private detective's (Michelle Monaghan) feeling concerning stealing the child. The usual corrupt cops topic doesn't require any additional comment really. As a last comment: I wouldn't have been surprised if Jennifer Lopez had taken a role in this movie to make it a truly Bennifer experience of a movie.