This Movie Is About: Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) who's a private missing persons investigator given the chance of a life time when a state wide missing girl case gets thrown in his lap. Patrick, along with his girl friend, Angie Genarro (Michelle Monghan) has to use their knowledge of the Boston area and people to shed some light on a very bleak situation. But as they dig deeper and deeper into the truth and the reality of what happened to Amanda is revealed, Patrick realizes that thet truth does not lie between the crevice of wrong and right and sometimes doing the 'right' thing can be the worse decision you can make in your life. You Should Watch This Movie Because: Ben Affleck directed it. But no seriously, he actually does a pretty good job in his directorial debute. But other than his brilliance, the film itself is definitely worth watching. It has many great layers on top of each other and it's a film that's definitely worth watching many times over. Just on the surface, the story is hella interesting. It's a kidnapping film which hasn't been very popular the last couple of years. Or I at least do not remember a great kidnapping movie for quite some time. The twists and turns come fast and furious as Patrick is put through the grinder as he continues to get deeper and deeper into the conspiracy of Amanda's disappearance.
What's Hot: The characters are full of life in this movie. Whether you follow our hero Patrick or the crusty Detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), you will be taken on an emotional roller coaster and squeezed for every last once of feeling. Patrick is definitely a very dynamic character but it's interesting how all the supporting characters each have their interpretation on Amanda's kidnapping and how they all justify their actions. In the end, everyone's motives make sense and come together as one theme. But it's the different sides that they take as I'm sure the audience will pick different sides as well. That's the essence of this film. Choice is something that we all are faced with but what happens when our choices affect the lives of others? What right do we have to make that choice and how do we live with ourselves if we make the wrong ones? That is the pivotal quesiton that this film presents. Everyone around Patrick has made their choice and it's time for Patrick to make his and his journey to his final decision is something quite special and well put together for a mystery-crime film and adds plenty of depth to a pretty standard storyline. Oh, and Ed Harris deserves an Oscar.
What's Not Hot: Michelle Monghan is very disappointing as the hot chick this movie. Not that it's a big deal but I think it was something to do with her eye brows. Okay, so that's out of the way. The plot twists and everything work well on a whole and of course they're air tight. I'm sure Affleck got plenty of help from story editors and script doctors to make this thing tighter than Donald Trump's prenuptual agreement. The problem I find with these twists is that they come too fast and all at the same time. As a result, it's told to us pretty good, and with a lot of flashbacks to make sure that we get it. Patrick does quite the job as a detective so it doesn't feel like manipulation but everything just happened so fast that the audience might get lost in the process. But the end result is easy enough to understand and I'm sure that most people won't even remember the twists when they walk out of the theatre. Other than that, there was a sequence in the middle involving another kid that I didn't feel was necessary. I thought that it really dragged the story down. Oh, and there wasn't enough Morgan Freeman. He has a couple of monologues but nothing serious. I guess he just wanted a easy ride this time around.
Break It Down:
Story: 8.5 (Dennis Lehane: novel, Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard: screenplay)
Direction: 8.0 (Ben Affleck)
Acting: 9.2
Cinematography: 7.8
Music/Sound: 6.8
Entertainment Value: 8.5 (not an average)
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