It does! That's probably what I was thinking, too. He plays "grizzled" so well now it's easy to forget he was such a pretty-boy.

When I reread the Kenzie and Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane recently I couldn't help seeing Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie because of Gone Baby Gone (the movie), even though I had read the original five books before the movie came out.

I read that recently as well. I pictured younger Jeff Bridges as Sughrue and Orson Welles as Trahearne, probably because it was written in 1978.

I reread this literally just last week and I was struck the same way by that section. It was empathetic and humane and terribly believable.

Great neo-noir that took the characters and a few plot points from the book and made its own thing. But man, the book is sprawling and craaazy, daddy-o!

I did a big re-read of the books recently and it's jarring how conventional his prose style was in the beginning, including the Black Dahlia.

Love Ellroy! The sequels are also amazing. And the LA Quartet is rightfully considered a classic. LA Confidential is waaay more epic than the movie (which I nonetheless love).