Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck's directorial debut takes on another Dennis Lehane crime novel involving the kidnapping of a child. And much like the overrated "Mysic River," based on another Lehane novel, more has been made out of this film than should have been. Casey Affleck stars as a hometown super-sleuth with a thick Boston accent. His life isn't hard, it's heaid. (You try transcribing Kennedyspeak.) He's scrawny as all get-out, and he talks a lot of smack when he really shouldn't, and it's not believable when he gets away with it. He and his girlfriend look into the disappearance of a little girl. And it's one of those, it's this person, no it's that person, no it's these people, no it's still these people but in a different way kind of films. One where after so many plot twists, you don't care, you just want the answer so you can move on with your life. The supporting cast is okay, I guess; Amy Ryan is notable as the mother of the kidnapped girl. The ending raises moral questions about what's best for a child, and who has the right to say what's best, but in my opinion, to even ask that question is pretentious.

The rest of this post will attempt to describe the ironies of the Ben Affleck backlash -- which I shall dub the bafflash.

Let's start at the beginning. Early Ben isn't that bad. "Good Will Hunting" was great, "Chasing Amy" sucked but not because of Ben (BNBOB), "Shakespeare in Love" was great, "Armageddon" was decent (for what it was), and "Dogma" was inexplicably terrible BNBOB.

Then there's middle-era Ben, which I confess I'm not too up on: "Forces of Nature," "Bounce," "Reindeer Games," "Pearl Harbor," "Jersey Girl." But I have seen "Gigli" and "Daredevil," and let me say, ouch. It might be fair to say these films are bad, possibly because of Ben (BOB).

But Ben's back!! Or so the critics would have us believe. "Hollywoodland" came out and Ben got all this good press for his acting prowess, but the movie's lame, so lame, in part BOB. Then he was in "Smokin' Aces," which was mildly entertaining, BNBOB. And now his new film is getting good reviews BOB, when in reality it's not that great, partly BOB.

The irony is this. The way I see things, critics have been hating on Ben, and now in recent years, because of a few projects, they're warming up to him. But by my estimation, his early work was okay (and the hatred undeserved), and his recent work is not good. To the critics and fans out there, I would say, in the immortal words of LL Cool J, "Don't call it a comeback." Oh, snap! The bafflash continues.