Dir: Ben Affleck
An exercise in queasy, incisive and mournful social observation, Affleck’s sensitive and actorly adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s pungent tale of, ultimately, conspiratorial wish-fulfillment that might perhaps bless a Boston suburb blighted by neglect, selfishness, apathy and a tragically fostered disdain for common decency is a low key gem.
Inescapably resting in the shadow of James Ellroy, this terrific picture might seem comparably slight and intimate but it's also free from the sensationalist grand-standing which pervades Ellroy’s sassy, bleak and provocative ret-conning of recent history’s brutality and perversion.
Beyond seeing a good story, well told, two things remain forefrton in the mind: firstly, Casey Affleck remains bafflingly underused by the industry, no doubt a product of his waif-like frame and a face that’s less beautifully haunted than etched with what might be some kind of uncomfortable, unconscionable memory that is his alone to endure for the rest of us; secondly there is no supporting turn more rewarding and heartening for the craft of screen acting than one by Ed Harris.
In the tradition in of modern actors crossing to the director’s chair, Affleck’s up there with Redford and Pollack. The US producers of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium series would do well to keep him in mind as they look for prospective filmmakers for the impending English language remake.
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