Amazing crime fiLm. I thought the first 1 hour or so didn't generate much interest in me but the Latter part and once the questions get answered, it was reaLLy thought-provoking and just incredibLe. Casey AffLeck's performance was very good-don't care about the rest. And I just reaLized that that Last shot was simpLy stunning.

A-

B+

Good film, certainly threw up an interesting moral quandry at the end there.

I was a little perplexed by the throwaway explanation for why social services wouldn't do anything. Seemed like a lazy way to make the end choice more difficult. In the real world, you call the police and get the kid returned to her mother, then you call social services on the bitch and get the kid taken off her legally.

Hehe. What did you think of Amy Ryan?

I thought she was good, but nothing special. Certainly nothing any other unknown, adept actress couldn't have done. I find it a bit strange she's getting so many awards mentions.

At the risk of sounding like Loyal, she's a bit of a charicature.

What did you think of Ed Harris? I thought he was at least equally good to Ryan.

ed harris was outstanding. when he interrogated amy ryan it was fantastic to watch.

Ed Harris is always good, but in a routinely, workman-like way. So I can see why he tends to get overlooked.

The acting all around was pretty great, but no one really stood out as AMAZING! It was a generous script with a good director, hard for any competent actor to fuck up really.

After watching this thats obvious cause this ain't anything like CSI

As for the film (thank you Excellent quality DVD Screener) its a highly commendable piece of work from Affleck that I feel would get even more praise if the subject matter wasn't so down to earth.

The inner city low life's and neglectful are neither caricatures nor the norm. They are some of the less appealing aspects of that particular area of society, I've seen plenty of people exactly like them in my time and im sure others have as well but they aren't the norm. I can see why Affleck used them though, otherwise the moral quandaries presented wouldn't have had as much resonance.

Afflecks final decision is understandable and perfectly in line with his character. In the end its his connection to where he comes from that overrides any thoughts of leaving the girl where he finds her and gives us a nice little bit of deeper meaning to his moment with Edd Harris in the Cafe and the talk of where a person is from.

I will say personally I called the main twist 14 minutes in which I'm happy with since im normally a clueless prat in that area

I think the main changing point for Affleck's character was shooting the pedophile and the outcome from it. That was the turning point of his character development.

His decision at the end was amazingly selfish, and thus all the more compelling.

Did he have this realization at the very end? I think he did. Great movie.

The most shocking part is that Ben Affleck directed this. It's excellent.

Not much left to be said that hasn't already been said. It's fantastic. Strong performances from the whole cast, especially Casey Affleck for me. And it's a film that still keeps you thinking about the decisions that were made in the film, just mind-blowing. Definitely one of the best films of the year.

A

I guess I'll have to go against the grain and side with loyal on this one, even though I liked it a bit more than he did.

It's been said that the twist(s) in this film work better because they're placed in context and they have an ethical side to them. But I disagree. This film is just as gimmicky as your typical psycho-thriller, and the fact that it attempts to hide its tricks under moral dilemmas makes it even worse, I think. It starts off well enough: it's engaging, it's interesting, it's got some meaningful things to say. But then it hits a brick wall, and has to work fast to try and regain its momentum. Once the twists starting coming fast and furious, I grew tired of them, and the ethical issues the film brings up failed to move me or excite me in any way. It just seemed like an excuse to present a fractured narrative without falling prey to the typical criticisms of the form. And the end of the film came so quickly, I didn't get shocked or surprised by the 'big reveal'; I just didn't care. I barely thought about the moral questions the film raised, because they didn't have much of an impact on me at all.

Still, the film is well-made, exciting at times, and has an interesting concept. In other words, it's just like a typical thriller, not some meaningful ethical debate. The performances are all solid, but no one was really amazing - none of the characters are really given a chance to believably grow all that much. All in all, it's just an average crime thriller, but not much more.

I wasn't too impressed either

Trix is right, as much as been made about the moral heaviness of the film, deep down it's still as typical a story as you can get for the genre. The "Turns out the family member and cop are secretly guilty" twist... yawn.

I was chuckling whenever the film went into tough guy Boston mode. Hi, Ben Affleck, not everyone in Boston is a druggie who carrys a gun and says fuck every 5 words. Particularly in the first half, the bar confrontation was bad, but the Cheeze scene tops it. I can't believe he actually said "bitches love cheddar." That might be THE unintentionally funny quote of the year.

Affleck didn't treat these side characters like real people at all, they're just drugged up silly pawns. Most of the small roles in the film, the druggies, are just thugs. After all the hype and success of Ryan diverting stereotypes, everyone else in the movie is exactly how you'd expect and hope they wouldn't be. For example, all 3 members of the pedophile house family (especially the fat white druggie girl) are so incredibly over the top and disbelievable as humans that I couldn't take the shooting seriously at all. Give me a break.

The entire Johnny Petrio storyline by the way was sooo hugely random and useless in comparison to the rest of the movie. It's the equivalent of "Oh yeah, I killed a guy too. Let me tell you about that for 20 minutes before we get back to the story. Intermission!"

Now, the good. It's a pretty well made film and the first go around of the Amanda case is pretty suspensful, despite the tough guy mode scenes. The acting is pretty uniformly great. Casey Affleck is a very solid leading man, I can definitley see his future in the business now. Ed Harris is typically his great self. And of course, the standout, Amy Ryan. Her vocal delivery and facial twitches, just perfect. I bought her character completley. I'd go as far to see it's the best performance male or female I've seen all year. In fact I wish the film gave her more screentime, when she disappeared for an hour it kind of lost something.

It's not a bad missing child movie, but after the hype, I expected more.

2.5/5

But....it's not that simple.



The choice Casey makes at the end of that episode leads directly to the one he makes at the end of the film. This sequence is absolutely integral to the journey of the character.

I absolutely agree about this. I usually hate it when others say that...but to dismiss this part of the film is useless and unnecessary means that the message the film is trying to convey wasn't quite understood.

Felt like the point would've been made just fine without that segment. At least to me anyways.

Me about to sleep and I run into this.

The films base of operations is in the lower sewers of society and hence its characters are perfectly in line with reality. The worst aspects of that reality? Yes, but the film doesn't make any of the assumptions you seem to, it doesn't say EVERYONE in this area is like this hence you're entire supposition is erroneous in the extreme.

This isn't Crash where you have Ludacris spouting dialogue better suited to a Plato scholar before carjacking Sandra Bollock, all the characters are consistent with the societal niche they are found in.

That sequence allows the Affleck character to define his moral code, at it were, which leads to his selfish, self-righteous decision at the end.

Among other thematic values.

You crazy man, I shall bust a cap on yo ass!!

Wouldn't the decision be enough to define his moral code? If the message is Casey is self-righteous, the end and along with his actions throughout the film (like trying to take the Cheeze negotiations into his own hands), tells us what we need to know about him without the pedophile sequence spelling it out again.

The shooting is when he 'takes the law into his own hands,' as such. The cops all applaud, they've done it too. But Casey is young, inexperienced, without a fully formed moral code, good or bad. This action eats at our hero, he rebels from Harris and his ilk. Thus, at the end, he's going to do the right thing, the lawful thing, no matter what it does to the poor girl; he's chosen moral self-righteousness over the welfare of a child.

Or you can argue Casey was already self-righteous. Again, being a private detective, trying to take hold of the Cheeze thing, making the promise to Ryan. The only thing the Petrio story did was lay it out for the audience, in a random subplot that was jarring when put next to the otherwise tight series of events.

No you couldn't.

He decided to deal directly with Cheeze because he knew him personally and knowing his volatile nature knew that he'd have a far better chance of getting the kid back alive then if the cops went in.

The promise to Ryan's character occurred when she broke down in tears and needed comfort of any kind, his reaction was a perfectly natural human thing to do.

Those events can be interpreted both ways

Casey killed the pedophile because he was already self-righteous... People are what they are, maybe he didn't accept it on the surface yet, but that, like the last decision and his entire line of duty, showed it.

woah woah woah

So your saying (correct me if I'm wrong) that if you burst into a room and found a kid dead and the murderer beside you that you wouldn't have an urge to kill that person? Its pure deep rage the character felt that would have stripped away any logical or measured thoughts.

Some people would have pulled back, some (like this character) would not, but to call it self-righteous is just wrong in my view.