IS THERE any hope for Ben Affleck? The former teen idol can’t act his way out of a paper bag. Watching him grieve and coo as a single dad in Jersey Girl is enough to make you feel sorry for the guy, and not just because J. Lo’s character dies early on.
He began with the indie credibility of Chasing Amy and Good Will Hunting, but became aggressively popcorn in such films as Armageddon and Daredevil. Along the way he became buff and tanned (look at Chasing Amy for his early dental affinity with Austin Powers). Now he keeps playing junk without finding a way to rise above it, or make it rise with him.
He’ll never outlive that day of thespian infamy, Pearl Harbor. Affleck was equal to that badness, quivering in his romantic triangle subplot like a soap veteran. Does his future lie in daytime TV?