The career of Ben Affleck, who returns to our screens today in crime drama The Accountant, has been nothing if not varied.
From child star to indie darling, then Hollywood laughing stock and Golden Raspberry winner (in 2003), before somehow returning full circle to respectability, successfully reinventing himself as an Oscar-winning actor/writer/director – and, of course, pulling on Batman’s cowl ... well, he has certainly kept himself busy.
Affleck began his professional acting career in 1984, at the age of 12, in the PBS educational show The Voyage of the Mimi. Nine years later, he appeared in Richard Linklater's cult ensemble classic Dazed and Confused. The movie was a commercial failure but critically adored, helping to launch the careers of not only Affleck, but also Matthew McConaughey and Milla Jovovich.
In 1997, Affleck truly became box-office gold when he co-wrote and starred in the Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting with childhood friend Matt Damon, and the duo became a regular on-screen pairing in the films of indie favourite Kevin Smith including Dogma (1999) and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001).
Affleck's success with Good Will Hunting turned him into bona fide Hollywood leading-man material – so it is a shame that he kept picking such terrible movies to star in.
His first big blockbuster role was alongside Bruce Willis in Michael Bay's critically panned Armageddon (1998), while his performance in 2001's atrocious Pearl Harbor (another Michael Bay film – coincidence?) would earn him a permanent spot in comedy folklore when the soundtrack to Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Team America: World Police featured a song including the immortal line "I need you more than Ben Affleck needs acting school". Ouch.
By 2003 Ben Affleck was in a relationship with pop star and actor Jennifer Lopez and his face was barely out of the tabloids. Unfortunately, it was often accompanied by a review of yet another terrible movie. In the days before Marvel movies were, well, good, he took the role of Daredevil in a 2003 big-screen adaptation. The New York Times described it as "second rate and ordinary" – and that was one of the kinder reviews. This and his appearances in the same year's Gigli (alongside Lopez) and Paycheck, helped him to win 2003's far-from-coveted Golden Raspberry Award for worst actor.
It seemed that Affleck couldn't pick a good movie for love nor money, so there was a degree of logic to his decision to reunite with his hitherto successful collaborator Kevin Smith for 2004's Jersey Girl. The film was Smith's first venture into big-budget Hollywood territory and the end result suggested that the director should stick to the micro-budget indies on which he had built his career. The movie was a failure, commercially and critically.
That same year, Affleck admitted to Entertainment Weekly that the quality of scripts he was being offered "was just getting worse and worse", and he had decided to take a break from film. It might have been the best career decision he ever made.
In 2006, Affleck began to stage a low-key comeback. Films such as Man About Town and Smokin' Aces were commercially insignificant, but finally the actor had roles that did not attract critical savagery.
It was as a writer/director, however, that Affleck had decided to progress next. His 2007 directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, was a relatively modest affair, with a US$19million (Dh70m) budget. It was critically adored, picking up multiple award nominations, including an Oscar nod for co-star Amy Ryan.
Affleck had not given up on acting, however, and he appeared in three movies in 2009, most notably alongside Jennifer Aniston in the romcom He's Just Not That Into You. The following year, impressed by his direction on Gone Baby Gone, Warner Brothers offered him his pick of projects.
The result was the 2010 drama The Town, a heist movie set in Boston that Affleck directed, starred in and co-wrote. It was a critical and box-office success, and the formerly hapless star was well and truly back on the Hollywood radar.
His 2012 Iranian revolution drama Argo, which he directed and starred in, was a box-office hit and won numerous awards, including three Oscars from seven nominations. Affleck would receive further acclaim as an actor for his role in David Fincher's brilliant 2014 thriller Gone Girl.
And then, of course, Batman came knocking. The movies in the DC cinematic universe have so far, it has to be said, received, at best, mixed critical responses. Audiences love them, though, and even the harshest critics of this year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice praised Affleck's performance as the caped crusader. Affleck reprised the role for a cameo in Suicide Squad, and will direct and star in the Dark Knight's next solo cinematic outing, after appearing in next year's superhero team-up Justice League, as DC looks set to keep him busy for a good few years yet.
Admittedly reviews for The Accountant (see left) have been lukewarm, while again praising Affleck for his acting efforts, but he has several other projects bubbling away with DC studio partner Warner Brothers. Next up is Live by Night, again as writer, director and star, which is based on a Dennis Lehane novel about the son of a Boston police captain who becomes a notorious gangster in the 1920s and 1930s.
After some incredible highs and lows, it seems, at least for now, Affleck is on top of his game.
The Accountant is in cinemas now
cnewbould@thenational.ae
