10 Brilliant Movies That Surprised Everyone
6. Gone Baby Gone
The self destruction of Ben Affleck made for grizzly reading. The once-promising actor and writer was torpedoing his career with terrible choices and tabloid notoriety, and the gossip rags quickly picked at his bones, as is their wont.
He all but disappeared for many years, before returning with one of the finest comebacks in the business - Gone Baby Gone, a slick throwback noir which he directed and co-wrote.
Smartly he refrained from appearing in the picture, with lead duties going to baby brother Casey, alongside Michelle Monaghan, in this dark and twisting tale of a missing girl on the mean streets of Boston.
Affleck had written before (winning an Oscar for Good Will Hunting 10 years prior), but his critical status was so low that the residual acclaim was all but nil. Few expected his directorial debut to be anywhere near this confident or accomplished, earning comparisons to Clint Eastwood and essentially rebuilding his career in one fell swoop.
Clearly Affleck had something to prove with Gone Baby Gone, and he more than managed it.