Directed by Ben Affleck, starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris

Like a cat on its ninth and final life, Ben Affleck may possibly have saved his career in the improbable role of director. Here he appears at last to have a success on his hands with this watchable, surefooted, if melodramatic cop procedural about child abduction, starring his brother Casey.

Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play Patrick and Angie, live-in lovers who are also a private investigation team. Just as news about a missing girl is plastered all over the TV, the kid's strait-laced aunt and uncle show up at their apartment, begging them to take the case and use their community credibility to get information that locals won't give the cops.

Through a strange mixture of impulsive generosity and hubris, Patrick agrees, and the pair have an uneasy chat with the girl's unreliable mother, Helene (Amy Harris), a cocaine addict; their presence infuriates Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and Detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), who, under intense media pressure, have something to prove.

Ben Affleck's script (he is the co- writer, with Aaron Stockard) shows a shrewd awareness of this.

The flaw in the film is Michelle Monaghan, who once again gives a faintly kid-sisterish performance. Her character turns out to be a more vengeful, and more possessed of Old Testament values, than is entirely consistent with the rather gentle, muted personality she projects in earlier scenes.

But Casey Affleck coolly holds the center of the film: a wiry, stubborn presence, intent on solving the case but aggressive and unstable with it. It is his persistence, both as actor and character, that tides us over the tricky plot reversals.

As for the ending, it is pure fantasy, and could be condemned as essentially mendacious. But this is well-crafted pulp, and the director contrives a neatly judged final shot before the credits: two people watching daytime TV, left alone with their lack of illusions. The Guardian

(China Daily 06/11/2008 page20)