A Brilliant Piece of Screen Writing

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2019)

11 November 2007. In perhaps the best script of the year, Ben Affleck has reprised his writing talent since demonstrating his talent with his collaboration with Matt Damon in GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997). This amazingly psychological mystery thriller is blunt, hard-edged, raw, and authentic in its depiction of small, inner city-neighborhood life. There are twists and turns here that all eventually lead to a logical but emotionally unsettling resolution that has no right or wrong answers to it. The photography and direction are spot on. Unlike Sean Penn's more cinematically, densely, and overly technically complex INTO THE WILD (2007), Ben Affleck has kept it forward, direct and tell the story along with the hidden blank spaces that will inevitably filled in later that even the protagonist, played by Casey Affleck isn't fully aware of. Except for one brief scene with a crazed woman coming up that starts behind a close door, this movie was technical perfect and perhaps the stereotypical drunken police scene reduced the power of the dialogues, inner turmoil. One of the richest, deeply involving, and compelling movie in years. Nine out of Ten Stars.