how are you feeling right now?

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2011)

A child goes missing. Her aunt is more concerned than her mother, and contacts police, media - and two private detectives. The detectives are more accurately debt collectors, but they know 'the neighbourhood,' and work this to gain the grudging respect of the police they liaise with. Except something is not quite right...
Casey Affleck again shows his youthful looks belie an acting maturity. Matched up with Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, he more than holds his own when the other two are performing at the top of their game. The case gets closed and PI Patrick somehow gets on with his life, till a once suspected paedophile enters his orbit, and that encounter forces him to re-visit the missing child case. He asks questions of everyone, but ultimately the toughest questions are the ones he is forced to ask himself.
Ben Affleck's debuts with aplomb. There is a slight pacing problem that kicks in when Harris and Casey share a bottle of rum outside the hospital in an overlong dialogue scene, but hell, that is small potatoes compared to the big questions and complex plotting this film offers up. This is a film that does not condescend to its audience; the choices Patrick makes seem authentic and the consequences show up in suitable shades of grey. A moving and deeply satisfying film, that demands repeat viewing.