I got a chance to see a preview of Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck's directorial debut, based on the Dennis Lehane book of the same name. Guess what? It's pretty damn good. Mature, solemn, funny and gripping, raising difficult questions and giving no easy answers... this from the guy who was Armageddon.

Now I've always liked Ben Affleck, I don't get the hate, but people at work assure me it's because of his "smug face" and "arrogance". I never got that, perhaps it's the fact he banged Jennifer Lopez and was in a turkey of a film with her. After that debacle he's shrunk from the public gaze, and more impressively he's written and directed one of the best crime thrillers I have seen in a long while.

 Starring his brother Casey (who recently blew Brad Pitt off the screen in Jesse James), the film follows the fall out from the disappearance/kidnapping of a 5 year old girl. Delayed for a year because of the Madeline McCann (superficial) similarities, this is a film that should be seen by a wider audience, not least because of the dark script, gritty direction and exemplary acting.