This edition of “Movies You Might Have Missed” features two 2007 films starring Casey Affleck where his character makes a complicated moral choice near the end of the films. Did his characters make the correct choices?
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007): This unusual Western, like its title, is a bit long, but the epic meditation on the Western myth, outlaws, and heroes is worth your patience. Brad Pitt does an excellent job as Jesse James and Sam Rockwell is great as always, but it is Casey Affleck as Robert Ford that forms the heart of the film. With some wonderful documentary narration by Hugh Ross, the movie is also filmed beautifully by director Andrew Dominik. Affleck portrays Ford as a complicated character who worships the celebrity James and then has to make the ultimate decision about killing his idol. The short coda of the film, which covers the time period after James’s death, is one of the most beautiful endings of any Western in cinema.
Gone Baby Gone (2007): One one level, Gone Baby Gone is a crime mystery. Casey Affleck’s character and his girlfriend, played by Michelle Monaghan, are hired to find a missing little girl by her aunt. But it is not your run-of-the-mill crime drama, as one might guess after learning that the film is based on a book by by Dennis Lehane, the author of Mystic River and Shutter Island. Casey’s brother Ben Affleck stays behind the camera as director and expertly conveys the character of the Boston neighborhood while weaving a morality tale of sorts. The mystery of the little girl takes some twists and turns, but ultimately, as in The Assassination of Jesse James, it ends with Casey Affleck having to make a choice and then pay the consequences for that choice. Gone Baby Gone is one of those quiet gems that draws you in and sneaks up on you. I recently re-watched the movie and liked it even better the second time. If you have not seen it, watch it for your first time.
The year 2007 was a big one for Casey Affleck with these two outstanding films, as well as appearing in Ocean’s Thirteen. He has not matched that year so far, and did not have another starring role until The Killer Inside Me in 2010. But he has several films in post-production and pre-production now, so we can look forward to some upcoming Casey Affleck movies, even if it will be difficult for him to match The Assassination of Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me?: Rotten Tomatoes gives a 75% critics rating and a 73% audience rating to The Assassination of Jesse James. Meanwhile, the Tomatometer gives Gone Baby Gone a 94% critics rating and an 84% audience rating.
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they did not receive the recognition they deserved when released.}
What do you think of these Casey Affleck films? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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