Terribly disappointing!

Rating: 5/10 (8 June 2011)

*** NOTICE: This review contains spoilers *** I just watched this film on DVD nearly four years after it came out in the theaters and was very disappointed. I was interested in seeing Ben Affleck's directorial debut and was very underwhelmed. I agree with many of the other comments on this message board who felt disappointed with the script, acting and directing. I never read the book, but I think Casey Affleck was miscast and I never believed him to be a tough guy. His understated acting style got annoying quite fast. He would always seem to be barely emoting his dialog and top that with a Boston accent? Hello, I had to turn up the sound quite often -- you want to really like your protagonist and root for them. I always felt disconnected from Casey. Didn't like the character. Monaghan was okay, but at times just seemed to be along for the ride -- and the shocker! She wants the little girl to stay with Morgan Freeman's character and Affleck wants her returned to her low life mother. Ah, the moral dilemma that will tear at the foundation of their relationship. I felt Casey's character never really had an arc or changed at the end, he felt the same way throughout and characters need to change at the end of their journey. In the scene when Casey discovers Morgan Freeman has the little girl and he walks back to his car -- when I saw the State Trooper cars approaching with flashing lights my heart sank. I said to myself, "you idiot, you really called the troopers on him?" If Casey had gotten into the car and drove away -- there's the proper ending. Then of course we see the ending scene where he's at the house and the deadbeat addict mom is leaving her kid for a date with barely a babysitter on board. Casey ends up babysitting the little girl. Great life the girl went back to, eh? At least she's with her mom -- who Casey says, "might change." I guess that was the point? Allowing us to make a moral decision for ourselves? Hell, I would have preferred the little girl to live with Morgan Freeman's character - he really loved her and she filled in for his deceased daughter. Oh, Ed Harris - great actor, but here he was chewing up the scenery compared to barely registering Casey Affleck. Wow, and the Mystic River sweeping aerial shots flying over Boston neighborhoods as transitions felt false to me. Completely underwhelmed. I hope to see "The Town" next as everyone was raving about it as a masterful heist film and Affleck's second directing job.