Make way for a leading man

It wasn't intended to play out this way. There was no master plan. And yet back-to-back fall movie releases are pushing Casey Affleck out of the supporting-sidekick category and into the ranks of leading men, edging him ever closer to seeing the disappearance of the comma that often follows his name before the words "brother of Ben Affleck."
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" has been beset by post-production delays and backstage wranglings that have held up its release since last fall, so when it finally hits theaters Sept. 21, it will be closely followed Oct. 19 by "Gone Baby Gone," a moody thriller based on a novel by Dennis Lehane in which Affleck plays a laconic, small-time private detective. Both roles involve young men forced into lose-lose situations that will indelibly mark the courses of their lives and, taken together, they show in the actor a newfound maturity and a previously unexplored depth and range.
In one sense, since he appeared on screen in 1995's "To Die For," Affleck has had to just make do, trying to create a strong impression and vivid characters with relatively limited screen time. On the DVD commentary track for "Good Will Hunting," Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant all marvel whenever Casey comes on screen, noting his exuberant eccentricity in his small part as a friend to the main characters. His role in "Ocean's Eleven" and its subsequent sequels provided an oddball ballast to the martini-time suavity of Clooney and Co.; in the recent "Ocean's Thirteen" his character was given a story line essentially to himself, inciting unionization at a Mexican dice factory.

Understanding the struggle

There is no small irony that Affleck's first major leading role comes playing a man who struggles to overcome his status as a bit player in someone else's story -- "I think Casey understands what it's like to be in somebody's shadow," said Andrew Dominik, director and screenwriter of "Jesse James."

As portrayed by Affleck, Robert Ford is an awkward, obsequious sniveler who descends into feelings of jealousy and disappointment over his place in the pecking order of James' life, ultimately lashing out in the manner of a spurned lover or obsessed fan. And yet there is a strange dignity to Affleck's portrait of "the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard" and "laid poor Jesse in his grave," as the folk tune goes, a strain of sympathy and understanding that is unexpected in its poetic strength.