ReelHeART Blogs

by Shannonn Kelly

ReelHeART always has a hard time deciding whether we actually like Ben Affleck “The Actor”. However, we have no trouble liking Ben Affleck, “the Director”.

With his feature directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone”, Affleck has managed to do what we know he does pretty well.

We already know Ben can write. Affleck won an Oscar with co-writer Matt Damon for “Good Will Hunting”. Ben is a co-writer again (with Aaron Stockard) on the screenplay of “Gone Baby Gone” which was adapted from the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name. Lehane by the way, also penned ”Mystic River” before it too was adapted for the screen, winning Oscars for lead, Sean Penn, supporting actor Tim Robbins,  supporting actress Marcia Gay Harden and director Clint Eastwood.

Ben Affleck has also managed to do two other fairly significant things.

First: Ben has been able to further boost his 3 years and 3 days younger brother Casey Affleck’s cache as “an up and coming actor”, even though Casey’s been acting since 1990. While Casey has done some small, somewhat memorable roles in the past, this is his year.

His perfomance as Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford has Oscar buzz and now his stars aligned performance as Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator hunting for an abducted 4-year-old girl in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester is the low-fat, pure Tahitian vanilla bean extract icing on the Oscar buzz cake.

Which brings me to the second thing Affleck has done quite well.

Not born there, but growing up in Boston, Affleck knows these neighborhoods. He brings us inside the Boston that many outsiders aren’t aware of and he’s done a fantastic job. Like Scorcese, Ben makes the city of Boston a character in “GBG” as I will now call it (Think Oliver Stone’s “NBK”).

Sure, yeah, we know about the Bo Sox and their World Series Win. But here at ReelHeART, we think it will only be a short time before we hear: “Mayor Thomas M. Menino welcomes you Ben Affleck as the official mascot for Boston and here’s the key to our fine city. You did a wicked awesome job…”

To see the trailer and learn more about the film click here http://gonebabygone-themovie.com/

written by RHIFF