EVERYONE WANTS THE TRUTH… UNTIL THEY FIND IT.
Private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are hired to look for a missing girl in Boston; two cops are assigned to help them, but the case has surprises in stow. Ben Affleck’s directing debut, an adaptation of his favorite book, was an eye-opener; he sure can deliver whenever he puts his heart to it. The film credibly portrays rough neighborhoods in Boston (which is close to where Affleck grew up) and it’s clear that the writers care deeply about the emotional issues that Dennis Lehane raises in his novel. The film delivers as a thriller as well and has a top-notch cast, including Amy Ryan as the no-good mother of the abducted child.
2007-U.S. 115 min. Color. Produced by Sean Bailey, Alan Ladd, Jr., Dan Rissner. Directed by Ben Affleck. Screenplay: Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard. Novel: Dennis Lehane. Cast: Casey Affleck (Patrick Kenzie), Michelle Monaghan (Angie Gennaro), Morgan Freeman (Jack Doyle), Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan… Amy Madigan.
Last word: “On a basic kind of plot level, it was extremely complicated just trying to get all the, not to mention the nuances, but the basic fundamental plot twists […] It is hard and then you don’t want to lose all the wonderful nuances, the texture, the dialog, the ambiance – I picked it really kind of foolishly first of all because I really liked it and because I also thought you know, I’m not that good at writing plot. I don’t really want to write an original story. I’ll find something that has a story architecture that I can fall back on set in a world I understand, and I can work on character and dialog which I feel more confident about. It just turned out that I set myself up for the most difficult job possible.” (Affleck, Collider)
