Affleck makes a solid directing debut with this adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel about the search for a missing child. There's a fine cast; the screenplay (by Affleck and Aaron Stockard) is tight and filled with tension; and Affleck does an excellent job of capturing the Boston neighborhoods where the story is set.
Casey Affleck stars as private investigator Patrick Kenzie, who's asked by the aunt of the missing girl to use his local contacts to "supplement" the police investigation. Patrick's partner (in business and in life), Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), is reluctant to take the case; she's not sure she can handle the particular stress and heartbreak that go with missing children.
The cops aren't thrilled to have them involved, either. Ed Harris and John Ashton are the two detectives in charge of the case, and their boss (Morgan Freeman, using his recent "St. Morgan" typecasting to very good effect here) created the special unit that investigates missing children after his own daughter was murdered; they all assume that amateurs like Patrick and Angie can only screw up the case.
Amy Ryan steals the movie from her better-known co-stars as Helene McCready, the mother of the missing girl. Helene's not a sympathetic figure; she's a drunk and a drug addict, and isn't terribly well educated. Ryan plays the part entirely without vanity; she's not afraid to be hated, and she makes Helene the most complex and interesting character in the movie.
My biggest problem with the movie is Casey Affleck. It's not a bad performance, certainly, but I find it hard to take him seriously as a leading man, mostly because of his voice. It's an insubstantial thing, all breath and top notes with no depth, no bottom to it, and it makes him seem far younger than he is. (Patrick is 31, which is the same age that Affleck was during the filming of the movie.) That's not entirely inappropriate for this story -- Patrick's youth and relative inexperience are crucial to the way the plot unfolds -- but combined with his strong Boston accent, it occasionally leads to key bits of dialogue getting lost in the sound mix.
Still, the movie is well worth seeing, and the difficult moral choice that faces Patrick and Angie at the end of the story had me thinking hard about what I'd do in that situation. (I think I'd make the same choice Patrick makes, but I'd spend the rest of my life wondering "what if?".)
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