Duff title, good movie...

Rating: 7/10 (27 July 2009)

Obviously I don''t like the flippant title but this directorial debut from heretofore lightweight actor Ben Affleck packs a solid punch with this dark tale of child-kidnapping at the doss-end of society. Along the way it posits some tough questions about who decides what's best for a young child growing up in a, to put it mildly, dysfunctional household. Sadly every year brings with it some sensational story of the kidnapping and / or abuse of some tragic infant - fresh in the memory, certainly of UK citizens is the apparent kidnapping of baby Madeleine McCann whilst on holiday in Portugal and frankly and tragically too many other child abuse cases to mention (the death of "Baby P" being the most recent high-profile story here) so that plots like this will always have topical significance.
There are lots of good things to savour in this movie, most prominently the fully idiomatic playing of the cast, especially by the lesser known leads, little brother (Ben's image, to be truthful) Casey Affleck and his partner Angie Gennaro, who become embroiled in a sensational child-kidnapping incident amongst the low-life drug-fuelled underclass in Boston. I would argue however against the casting of the biggest name here, obviously Ben's old co-star chum Morgan Freeman, whose presence almost overpowers the movie and unfairly, in my opinion, skewers the viewer's critical faculties by the nature of his movie persona with its reputation for truth and trustworthiness - the final twist, in which his significance comes to the fore, fails to malign enough, his admittedly good intentions. That point itself is much better made with the excellent closing scene, where Affleck gets to witness at first hand the depressing outcome of his moral decision at the crux of the film as he witnesses first-hand the boozed-up, sluttish mother, only too happily abandoning her recently returned long-lost daughter to anyone passing (on this occasion, Affleck) so she can enjoy a night on the town - the fixed shot of Affleck and the child on the cheap sofa, staring mindlessly at the child's only toy, a TV screen, stays long in the memory. On a side-bar, I also found the utilisation of the background music very effective and the better for being so sparingly used.
Fault-finding badge in place, however, besides my casting concern over Freeman noted above, I did occasionally find the plot just too ppaque, as, for example, we see played and replayed in a different way each time the key hand-over scene in the dark by the lake, while for me the ending was a bit too pat - such a tautly-drawn narrative just didn't need the plot twist grafted on here and I will lastly admit to having a lot of difficulty in listening clearly to the sometimes mumbled, occasionally incoherent dialogue of the characters.
However, minor caveats aside, this was a welcome raw, tough and uncompromising movie, well-paced from start to finish. Get thee behind (and not in front of) the camera, Ben!