Actor Ben Affleck until recently had a bit of a dip in his career with a string of flops. Then he changed tracks and directed 'Gone Baby Gone'. Now he is a success again.
I think that sticking to his home town of Boston has helped Ben in the direction of his films. He lives and knows the people that populate his movies, so he can bring a unique perspective to the film. You really feel like these are very authentic characters. Real people with real lives. Which helps with this film especially as the plot is very familiar and a little predictable. But when you have great characters like this you don't care. You come to care about these people and what happens to them despite the fact you have seen it done before. Ben has certainly upped the stakes with his direction too. He handles the action scenes in this film with great care. They are really tense and thrilling.
Being an actor himself, means Ben can get excellent performances out of his cast and himself. This is one of his finest roles in recent memory. As mentioned before he knows the type of character he is playing very well so can dig into past experiences to draw out the authenticity. Jeremy Renner was brilliant in 'The Hurt Locker' and does it once again here. He played a nice guy before and is now a really nasty character here and shows his range. Rebecca Hall is always fine and is fine here too. Jon Hamm continues to make excellent career choices here. I was also quite impressed with Blake Lively.
A wonderfully acted drama that while fairly familiar is brought together by some brilliant characters. Make sure you check it out to see why Ben Affleck is more than just a pretty face.
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