Simple story, Beautiful telling

Rating: 8/10 (15 August 2014)

The Good
A great ensemble cast who play their roles perfectly. But it's the stand out performances of Williams and especially Damon that keep you hooked. Their immediate portrayal of polar opposite characters is the cornerstone for the film and watching their characters and relationship change is nothing short of brilliant. Many stand out moments from both but then Damon has his breakout moment and steals the show. The writing from the young Affleck and Damon is transferred very well to screen. They take a simple premise and slowly pull it apart until we have something beautiful to watch. It's dramatic, it's funny, it's sad. The writers make us relate and the actors make us believe in equal measure.
The Bad
While the writers work the premise well, there are moments that are somewhat predictable. We know where the film is going and have worked out early on how it will end. They gave us great moments of drama, but no big twists in the story, it is very linear and i never felt like the route of the film would change. Also I felt it ended a whisker early. One more shot would have ended it well.
The Ugly
This is nit picking by now, but William's introduction followed the rather cheesy and much used line "Well there is one more!". This line wasn't needed. We knew Williams was coming and such an important character deserved a non cliché'd welcome.