But What They Really Want to do is Direct

"Once" has been at the top of my favorite movies for 2007 so long I wondered if it was ever going to get any competition (granted I haven't seen as many movies as in years past) but it finally has by 2 movies from first time directors better known as actors.

The first is "Gone Baby Gone" directed by Ben Affleck from the Dennis Lahane book. (Talk about a gift-first "Mystic River" then this-all authors I like should be so lucky.) I wasn't as skeptical as some, I think Affleck can act ("Good Will Hunting" "Chasing Amy") though he doesn't always ("Armageddon") and a Boston boy adapting a Boston genre book seemed like a good place to start. I was also pleased by the seemingly nepotistic call to have his brother Casey star since I have always preferred Casey. Though I was more positive than some, I was still very impressed by "Gone Baby Gone" which emerged as a gripping, deep movie with far more gravitas than your normal private eye picture.

Then last night I finally got around to watching "Away from Her" on the theory that if you're already sad why not watch a weepie? I was completely undone by Sarah Polley's directing debut which is based on the Alice Munro short story "The Bear Went Over the Mountain". Yes, of course it's about a long married couple whose relationship changes when the wife develops Alzeimers so I knew it wasn't going to be happy happy but I wasn't fully prepared to have my heart ripped out and served to me. Julie Christie has been getting huge praise, and rightly so, for her heartbreaking portrayal of the wife (Oscar committee just check out the scene where she explains the difference between going and gone) but I also think Gordon Pinsent, who plays her husband, is due some cheers. His plays the husband's struggle so convincingly it's hard to know who suffers more.

Though both Polley and Affleck make a few first timer mistakes (his reliance on local color and 1 key editing error and her clumsy flashbacks) overall their films are great and show they can both act and direct. I hope to see more from both in the future.