Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck, 2007 (8.4*)
Well, he may not be much of an actor, but dang if Ben Affleck didn't turn out to be a pretty good director. This is a mystery thriller in the Hitchcockian film noir tradition, and pretty well directed for a debut effort.

This story is about a missing girl, a lack of progress by law enforcement, and the dogged determination of Ben's private detective brother Casey Affleck, who doesn't really act much (which may be a good thing), stars as a man determined to use detection and knowledge of the streets to find the truth. The pace is pretty well maintained, the cast is competent, not exceptional, but does include Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris.

It's apparent that Ben's talent lies behind the camera, and hopefully he makes more tightly crafted crime mysteries, there are so few that are well done these days. A more recently directed effort is The Town, from 2010, another crime film.
Winner of 19 awards overall..