The movie was gritty, yes; raw, yes; Bostonian, yes (there were times the Boston accent/dialect was so thick, I needed English subtitles) and there's Casey Affleck...oh yes. Ladies, in case you’re wondering, he’s got “it” and just as sure as the words on this screen, this movie will target him as the next Hollywood heartthrob. His performance in the film was solid, contemplative, and “exquisite” (as Ben spoke to his brother’s acting ability during a Q & A).

In Gone…, he plays a rookie private detective who is hired along with his partner/girlfriend to find a missing little girl. What I love about breakthrough performances, which this is for Casey, (see his first breakthrough in The Assassination of Jesse James) is that you can always detect a bit of humility and purity in the performance. Casey was able to deliver that when the character he played was quite the opposite: a young and cocky tough guy; brimming over with testosterone.

Casey Affleck was charming in person; a little like his character, Patrick, in the film- dark, thoughtful, and mysterious. He didn’t say much on stage last night but what he did say made you want to hear more.

As for Big Brother Ben, he said many things… like he found this particular book by Mystic River writer, Dennis Lehane, to be his favorite which is why he chose to write the screenplay along with co-writer Aaron Stockard. He also said that his friend, Matt Damon, was “too old” to play the lead and that his brother, Casey was perfectly casted.

As for the movie...much like my decision to quit my job to pursue a dream haunts me daily, Patrick, in Gone Baby Gone, eventually finds that he must meet the same haunting fate. The movie makes you think about how for some, the concept of what is "right" and "wrong" is all relative; how when everyone acts according to their own sense of "right", the lines eventually get muddy, and there’s sometimes a resulting mess.

I suspect for many reasons, outside its cast of veterans like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, this movie will be a hit so, get your tickets before they are gone baby, gone.