Good Baby Good

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2007)

Ben Affleck has a lot riding on this movie, but he couldn't have backed a better horse for his directorial debut- combine his smart, sharp approach to film with the Boston flavored sewer poetry of author Dennis Lehane, and you have a match made in heaven. Affleck colors this missing persons thriller with a local flair, the kind of down and dirty authenticity that 'The Departed' reached for but missed. He also proves his skill with directing actors-uniformly excellent actors like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris give some of their best performances here, and up and comers Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan give some of the strongest, bravest performances in modern movie history. Still, Ben-Ben's first try behind the camera is flawed-the second act sags into a series of script beats and serious speechifying, and he makes the mistake of having Casey provide a few condescending, awkwardly placed voice-overs that had me scratching my head. But for a first try, Mr. Affleck has done better than many-he has crafted what is, for the most part, a powerful thriller with a wrenching ending that will have you talking. Is it perfect? No. But it's absolutely worth your time.