ed harris Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I don't necessarily have a soft spot for westerns -- although 3:10 to Yuma, Seraphim Falls, and The Proposition certainly didn't hurt that cause -- but because we as moviegoers aren't exactly inundated with them, it always feels like they tend to have more effort and care put into them than most other genre fare.

Judging from the MSN exclusive trailer for the upcoming Appaloosa, this looks to follow suit as Ed Harris (who also directed and co-wrote the film) and Viggo Mortensen (for whom Harris played an adversary in A History of Violence) deal with lawlessness in a small town out west, while the widowed Renée Zellweger surely tempts them both.

Toss in a supporting cast that includes Jeremy Irons and Lance Henriksen (that reminds me, The Quick and the Dead merits mention as well), and the benefit of my doubt at least has been earned. Appaloosa is scheduled to play Toronto in September, followed by an October 3rd release.

It's easy to finger Amy Ryan's performance in Gone Baby Gone as one of the best of the year, however I'm surprised more notice hasn't been given to the entire cast. After all, this is an ensemble film, with fantastic performances from Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Amy Madigan and a host of Boston locals plucked from obscurity; all of whom were, essentially, asked to play themselves. Gone Baby Gone is a tough film to review, because there are so many plot twists, and criticisms of said plot twists, that it's hard to discuss without giving away some major spoilers. I will say that Gone Baby Gone is a good film; a solid film -- and one that will definitely leave you debating the outcome with whomever you choose to watch it with.

Set and filmed entirely in the Boston area known as Dorchester, Gone Baby Gone revolves around the kidnapping of a little girl and the subsequent investigation into her disappearance. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play a pair of local private investigators/lovers who are hired by the missing girl's aunt and uncle in an attempt to solve the case by going through the folks who won't talk to the cops. Ed Harris and John Ashton play the main detectives on the case, Morgan Freeman plays the police captain heading the entire investigation and Amy Ryan plays the little girl's delinquent, drug-addicted mother. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), Gone Baby Gone will certainly hit you emotionally, but how much depends upon whether you buy into the story as it unravels.

It's often the first few sentences of a novel that define the rest of the story, and in the case of Gone Baby Gone, it's Patrick Kenzie's (Casey Affleck) opening lines that tell you everything you need to know about his character, his mindset and the choices he'll make throughout the film: "It's what you don't choose in life that make you who you are." He goes on to give examples like family, or where you were born, while the camera sweeps across the hardened blue-collar streets of Dorchester, Mass., eventually landing smack in the middle of a community grieving the disappearance of a little girl who was kidnapped from her bed. Those of us on the outside looking in would describe these people as "white trash" -- the kind of folks that made Jerry Springer a household name -- but to Patrick, this is home. These are the people he grew up with, these are the people he'll grow old with, and these are the people he'll go out of his way to protect.

Patrick knows Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) from high school (he was a freshman when she was a slutty senior), and when her daughter Amanda is kidnapped in the middle of the night, Dorchester is thrown into a frenzy: Cops, news reporters, cameras and crowds of people camp outside Helene's small, unkempt apartment complex. Helene isn't some white, middle-class stay-at-home mom, she's a single woman with an abusive boyfriend and a coke habit. The cops, led by police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), begin to do what they do best -- but for Helene's sister-in-law (Amy Madigan), that's not enough. And so she, along with her reluctant husband Lionel (Titus Welliver) seek out the services of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro (Michele Monaghan); two fairly young private investigators who know the neighborhood, know its people and know how to find someone. And while Kenzie and Gennaro are extremely hesitant at first (after all, every cop in the city is looking for that little girl), they eventually decide to take the case. It would wind up being the single best -- and worst -- decision they would ever make.

I've just returned home from seeing Gone, Baby, Gone, and since I'm itching to write about it (but can't give you my review until later this week), I shall point you toward Moviefone's Unscripted with director Ben Affleck (you might know him) and the film's star Casey Affleck (Ben's little brother). Let's get this out of the way first: The film is flippin' fantastic, and if you're thinking about heading to the movies this weekend, there's no reason why you shouldn't be seeing this flick (unless, of course, you have a child and need to see something a little more PG rated). Yes, Ben Affleck had some fantastic material to work with, that being the novel written by Dennis Lehane, but he's certainly proven here that stepping behind the camera for this film was probably the best career choice the guy ever made.

All that being said, the Unscripted is definitely an interesting watch. In it, both Afflecks ask one another some of your questions (that you left as comments on this blog), as well as their own. Because the film's climax presents its main character with a gigantic moral question (one you're sure to argue over with whomever you choose to see the movie with), I was interested in the question Ben asked Casey about whether he, as an actor, feels obligated to give his own opinion on the ending, or if he'd rather leave it up to the audience to figure out. You'll have to watch the interview for his answer, or wait until after you see the movie yourself, but I like the way in which Casey goes about responding. And speaking of Casey, get this kid some more roles! Even though I felt Amy Ryan stole this film away from top-notch actors like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck hung in there with the best of them and delivered one heckuva performance. So watch the Unscripted, go see the movie this weekend, and you can thank me later for the recommendation.

Unfortunately, those of you living in the UK and really looking forward to the much buzzed-about directorial debut of Ben Affleck, Gone, Baby, Gone, will have to wait some time before seeing the film. That's because Buena Vista International UK has suspended the release of the film indefinitely due to similarities between the flick and the real-life case of Madeline McCann, the British girl who's been missing since early May. Though the case is a fairly popular topic here in the States, I gather it's a much bigger deal in Britain -- especially now that the two parents have become official suspects in their daughter's disappearance from a Portuguese apartment.

Based on a book by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), Gone, Baby, Gone follows two detectives tracking the case of a missing four year-old girl, and how it subsequently affects them both professionally and personally. It stars Casey Affleck, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, among others. By total coincidence, the name of the actress portraying the missing girl in the film is Madeleine O'Brien, which I'm sure would just add fuel to the fire across the pond. Affleck, who is totally behind the decision to pull the film, had this to say while at the Deauville Film Festival: "We are acutely aware of the situation. We have a greater concern for that than the release of our film, which is just a commercial matter, whereas this is a matter of life and death." Gone, Baby, Gone was also scheduled to have, what Variety calls, a "splashy" Oct. 26 Times London Film Festival gala screening, but it's since been pulled from the lineup. No word on when the film will arrive in the UK; I imagine it will depend on where the McCann case goes from here. Gone, Baby, Gone will arrive in US theaters on October 19.