I missed even knowing of this movie until very recently. My loss for sure because it's a finely crafted mystery that kept me highly alert, watching and listening carefully for clues. And still, I missed it....
The story centres upon the disappearance of a toddler, a 4 year old girl from her mother's home. As viewers, we enter this mystery with Casey Affleck as private investigator Pat Kenzie and his female side-kick Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro.
The police are already involved in the disappearance but not progressing sufficiently for the mother, Helen McCready (Amy Ryan) and her brother, Lionel (Titus Welliver). Hence, she has asked the two private eyes to get things moving more to her satisfaction.
Which they do, even though the police, naturally, are not too happy about their continued presence. The lead detective, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) is not impressed with the PIs lack of experience; while his boss, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) just wants Bressant to get a result - like yesterday.
Things worsen for the cops when our PI heroes get mixed up with a local drug boss, Cheese (Ed Gathegi), mainly because Helen, the toddlers mother, has stolen $130,000 from Cheese when a drug deal was busted by the cops. Hence, suspicion falls upon Cheese that he has kidnapped the child as hostage to recover his money.
From here, best you just savour the quickened pace of the movie as more ugly truths and lies surface to muddy the mix even further.
The performances are uniformly - no pun intended - adequate, especially with stalwarts like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan are both up to the task also. Ben Afleck does a good directing job.
Some might argue, however, that the resolution of the mystery is utterly contrived and even beyond suspension of disbelief in a fictional story. I don't agree with that outlook - as the saying goes, truth is often stranger than fiction. Watch carefully and listen for those clues.
Recommended for adults. Give this one eight out of ten.
The story centres upon the disappearance of a toddler, a 4 year old girl from her mother's home. As viewers, we enter this mystery with Casey Affleck as private investigator Pat Kenzie and his female side-kick Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro.
The police are already involved in the disappearance but not progressing sufficiently for the mother, Helen McCready (Amy Ryan) and her brother, Lionel (Titus Welliver). Hence, she has asked the two private eyes to get things moving more to her satisfaction.
Which they do, even though the police, naturally, are not too happy about their continued presence. The lead detective, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) is not impressed with the PIs lack of experience; while his boss, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) just wants Bressant to get a result - like yesterday.
Things worsen for the cops when our PI heroes get mixed up with a local drug boss, Cheese (Ed Gathegi), mainly because Helen, the toddlers mother, has stolen $130,000 from Cheese when a drug deal was busted by the cops. Hence, suspicion falls upon Cheese that he has kidnapped the child as hostage to recover his money.
From here, best you just savour the quickened pace of the movie as more ugly truths and lies surface to muddy the mix even further.
The performances are uniformly - no pun intended - adequate, especially with stalwarts like Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan are both up to the task also. Ben Afleck does a good directing job.
Some might argue, however, that the resolution of the mystery is utterly contrived and even beyond suspension of disbelief in a fictional story. I don't agree with that outlook - as the saying goes, truth is often stranger than fiction. Watch carefully and listen for those clues.
Recommended for adults. Give this one eight out of ten.