My view

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2008)

This was a better movie than I expected given the fact it was Ben Affleck's first directorial effort and he shamelessly cast his own brother in the lead role. And it is Casey Affleck's performance I felt was the weak point of the film, along with some clumsy scripting in spots. IMO Casey was just not believable in that role, which calls for someone with a lot more substance. His attempts at masculine toughness were somewhat embarrassing. The best I can say for Casey is he did not completely destroy the movie, even if he did seem to be in a semi-trance most of the time. Fortunately for him he was working with some really great actors, though they did overshadow him at every turn. But the success of the movie lies in the story itself, which was both gripping and haunting, as any story of children in danger would be. Ben himself seems to have a good feel for story-telling though his visual style is ordinary at best. His feel for dialogue is not much better - but I realize he is not a master writer and not likely to ever be. My advice to Ben is stick to just the directing - if he leave the scripts, camera work and editing to more talented people he will do just fine. Oh, and stop casting family members in lead roles.