Choppy, clumsy pacing and mediocre acting Doom this movie

Rating: 4/10 (28 October 2007)

I disagree with almost everyone who has written or rated this movie on IMDb. I thought the movie started very poorly and failed to engage my attention for the first 10 to 15 minutes. In fact I was really trying to get into the film, but the movie repelled my efforts. In fact the entire movie smashes at the audience, both with its acting and action, but also with its unpleasant theme that deserves better movie treatment.
Casey Affleck is a sweet looking guy, but he is totally unbelievable as a detective in hard core Boston. The opening moments that introduce us to him and his female partner are choppy and all over the place. They both come across as flat and one dimensional. They don't talk to each other, but rather by and around each other. The female detective comes across, at best, as a drugged out, vague person. She literally has no personality. This continues the entire film.
The film brings in the reliable Ed Harris to snarl and yell as the macho cop. This is easy as pie for Harris. Morgan Freeman's initial acting in the film is also flat and uninvolving. I also question the credibility of this film in having a black as the highest ranking officer in the film. Certainly there are black captains and higher in Boston, but his blackness, rightly or wrongly in our society, brings in factors that detract from the movie. Doyle should have been a rough, tough Irish man--actually Harris should have been Doyle and Freeman should have not been in this movie. Talk about politically correct. We have a pedophilia film with a mournful, soulful Boston police captain who is almost eager to allow private detectives work with the force. That is also beyond credibility. Perhaps Affleck and his girlfriend could have gotten involved, but it would have taken a lot more convincing story telling to make it happen in a believable fashion--in this film things just happen. We have a series of clichéd set pieces (bar scene, scene with bad ass drug king, scene with uncaring mother. There is NO continuity and little believability in all the scenes. I understand many viewers liking this film because there are so few adult films on really serious subjects and this film seems powerful and compelling. However, it never comes together and for reasons listed above this never rises above an average film that concerns a firecracker topic (child sex and abuse).
The only interesting moments, and above average acting by Affleck, come at the end when he is deciding whether to do the right thing or take an action that is wrong but more emotionally satisfying. In these final moments, we see what might have happened in this film to make it a good one. I blame the director, Hollywood darling Ben Affleck, (who also co wrote the adaption of Lehane's probably good novel) for the problems in the film. He fails to get good performances from his cast and takes a serious story and degenerates it into a soap opera--a poor one at that.