The trailer for Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, is up and running, and has been for a while. A Boston-set investigatory piece centered around the disappearance of a four-year-old little girl, the movie stars Affleck’s little brother, Casey (above left), as well as Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. The trailer is full of boilerplate plot marker cards like, “In a city that protects its own,” and someone (in this case a teary Michelle Monaghan, above right) advising our protagonist to, “Let it go,” yet it’s also well constructed, and you can tell that the older Affleck allows for the indulgence of small moments and subtle underplaying, no small whoop. That it gives off a strong Mystic River vibe is of course no surprise given that the material is of the same source — author Dennis Lehane, in this case adapted by Affleck and Aaron Stockard.

The word around town is that this is a solid credit and legitimate career makeover for the erstwhile chaser of Amy, but if people didn’t know that Affleck was actually an intelligent, insightful guy, they weren’t paying attention to anything other than the paparazzi photos for the past six or seven years. And as much as it’s a film of note for Ben — who never would have had any trouble finding open doors anyway — it could represent a massive change in the career of Casey, who’s said to be stellar in his role as Patrick Kenzie. Miramax will release Gone Baby Gone in limited fashion on October 19, and take it wide the following week. For more information, click here.