A Casey Affleck Thriller Is Climbing The Streaming Charts
Audiences are discovering this Casey Affleck movie on streaming.
This article is more than 2 years old
Casey Affleck has put together a well-respected award-winning career and his latest film, a psychological thriller, can be found climbing Hulu’s most-watched list as it sits at #5.
Every Breath You Take stars Casey Affleck as psychiatrist Philip Clark. He lives with his wife Grace (Michelle Monaghan) and their daughter Lucy. While living a peaceful existence, the family continues to grieve the death of their son, who was killed three years prior in a car accident.
One of Philip’s patients is Daphne. During a presentation where Philip is presenting a case study, he informs the students that he has cured the suicidal young lady with a new technique where he expresses grief and emotional trauma from his own past to her. He has told her things that he has never even shared with his wife.
Casey Affleck’s Philip receives a call from a distraught Daphne, informing him that her best friend Joan was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Although Philip seems to think Daphne was cured, the trauma of losing her friend appears too much for Daphne – she kills herself.
This prompts Daphne’s brother, James (Sam Claflin) to arrive. He isn’t looking to blame, just to make sense of things. Philip finds out that James is a novelist and that his new book, which Philip finds interesting and has purchased, will arrive in two weeks. This is where James’ true motives become questionable. James seduces Lucy, then finds himself doing the same with Grace. James then files a formal complaint against Philip, prompting the Board to recommend Philip stop his practice until Daphne’s death is fully investigated.
As Philip begins to get more and more suspicious of James, the man slowly begins to unravel. James taunts Philip, going so far as to tell him he can “still smell Grace.” When Philip finally gets his hands on a copy of James’ new book and looks at the back cover, Philip realizes that James isn’t who he claims to be, and Daphne is not James’ sister.
Every Breath You Take has, like many Hollywood productions, been a victim of development hell. The movie was set to be made in 2012 and was titled You Belong to Me with Rob Reiner directing. The film was also going to be headlined by Harrison Ford and Zac Efron. Seven years later, with Reiner, Ford, and Efron no longer attached to the film, Casey Affleck took over the Ford role and Claflin assumed Efron’s.
Every Breath You Take, directed by Vaughn Stein, didn’t enjoy a major theatrical release, instead taking the video-on-demand path. Critically speaking, the film failed to generate many positive reviews, pulling in a miserable 19% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So far, though, audiences have found the film to their liking.
Yes, Casey Affleck is the younger brother to Ben Affleck. Seeing his brother’s early success, Casey decided to high-tail it to Hollywood, where he shacked up with big brother and big brother’s good friend, Matt Damon.
Casey Affleck’s first major role came in the 1995 Nicole Kidman film, To Die For. It was the first of three movies Affleck would appear in for director Gus Van Sant. The other two were the Academy Award-winning Good Will Hunting and Gerry.
Affleck also appeared in three of director Steven Soderbergh’s films, the comedy heist trilogy of Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen.
Casey Affleck garnered major attention in 2007 when he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal as Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Casey Affleck’s pedigree grew until 2016 when he starred in Manchester by the Sea. It was this film that Affleck’s performance of Lee Chandler, a man grieving the loss of his children, gained him numerous awards. In total, Affleck took home four awards for his performance including an Academy Award as well as a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA, all for Best Actor. Affleck was even nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
But Casey Affleck’s run through award season wasn’t without controversy as claims of sexual harassment were leveled against Affleck. While filming the mockumentary I’m Still Here, which Affleck directed and produced, two women claimed to have been sexually harassed on the set.
Though Affleck settled with both women out of court, he did accept blame. “It was an unprofessional environment and, you know, the buck had to stop with me being one of the producers and I have to accept responsibility for that and that was a mistake,” Affleck admitted in an AP interview. “I contributed to that unprofessional environment and I tolerated that kind of behavior from other people and I wish that I hadn’t. And I regret a lot of that. I really did not know what I was responsible for as the boss. I don’t even know if I thought of myself as the boss. But I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And I’m sorry.”
While the sexual harassment is gone but not forgotten, Affleck has made every attempt to understand and fix his wrongdoing. His career has flourished and since that time, his name has not seen controversy. Recently, Casey Affleck continues to find time on smaller films. He was seen in A Ghost Story, The Old Man & the Gun, Our Friend, and The World to Come.
You can find Casey Affleck and his psychological thriller Every Breath You Take on Hulu.
