Affleck brothers have the golden touch

BY JAN STUART | jan.stuart@newsday.com

February 17, 2008

As you contemplate where to place your Oscar-pool chips for best supporting actor and actress this month, mind the Affleck effect.

Ben Affleck, whose star flame seemed to fizzle as his buddy Matt Damon's flared brighter, may have found his most persuasive niche behind the scenes. A precocious co-Oscar winner (with Damon) in 1997 for their "Good Will Hunting" screenplay, the once-moribund Affleck has risen phoenix-style in 2007 as director and screenwriter (with Aaron Stockard) of the well-received crime thriller "Gone Baby Gone."

While younger brother Casey drew praise for his lead role as a morally unimpeachable Boston detective, the film's primary Oscar beneficiary has turned out to be Amy Ryan, the Queens-born actress nominated for her unsentimental turn as a single mom whose drug-world lifestyle may have led to her daughter's disappearance. In a sturdy contest that includes Cate Blanchett's Bob Dylan turn in "I'm Not There," Tilda Swinton's fearsome corporate player in "Michael Clayton," Ruby Dee as Denzel Washington's mom in "American Gangster" and Saorise Ronan's mendacious adolescent in "Atonement," Ryan has a decent shot at the prize.

Don't feel sorry for Casey, though, who for many years seemed content to shuffle unassumingly in the shadow of Ben's glamour-boy swagger. The 32- year-old kid brother has a supporting actor nomination in a role that could be seen as an ironic self-reflection: a low- level gang member who simmers resentfully in the background of his celebrity outlaw boss.

As Robert Ford in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Affleck effects a powerful transformation from cipher to predator. It's really a star role - Affleck's Ford takes up more screen time than his partner in crime, Brad Pitt - which is one of many reasons why Affleck stands a fighting chance against such seasoned competitors as Philip Seymour Hoffman (" Charlie Wilson's War"), Hal Holbrook ("Into the Wild"), Javier Bardem ("No Country for Old Men") and Tom Wilkinson ("Michael Clayton").

The late blooming of Casey Affleck is particularly sweet for those of us who always felt he was the more compelling of the siblings. From his commercial feature debut as a love-struck high school student turned killer in Gus Van Sant's "To Die For," the younger Affleck has opted more often for risk-taking indie parts, as exemplified by his touching improvisational turn opposite Damon in Van Sant's little-seen "Gerry."

While Ben was taking dead-end turns romantically (J.Lo.) and artistically ("Gigli"), Casey was honing his craft as Fortinbras to Ethan Hawke's Hamlet and a sad-sack prodigal son in Steve Buscemi's "Lonesome Jim." His main commercial foray - goofing opposite Scott Caan in the "Ocean's Eleven" capers - was a box-office bull's-eye and proved he had a deft touch with comedic roles.

Ben Affleck, to his credit, may well be the auteur in the family. Ryan had a thriving career before "Gone Baby Gone"; in the past year alone, she also made vivid impressions in "Dan in Real Life" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." But it was her boffo work with Affleck that made the academy sit up; at the same time, her director's tight script argued that his writing on "Good Will Hunting" wasn't a fluke.

Pardon our surprise. This was a guy, after all, who made his directing debut with a 16- minute student film titled "I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney." Sophomoric, perhaps. But there is no denying that, in the evolving fortunes of Ben and Casey Affleck, murder talks.