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Gone Baby Gone
In a working-class Boston neighbourhood, 4-year-old Amanda McCready has gone missing without a trace. The police are clueless, so Amanda’s desperate Aunt and Uncle plead with local private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to take the case.
Patrick and Angie know the neighbourhood and they also know the truth about Amanda’s drug-addicted mother Helene (Amy Ryan). As they dig into her story, they find themselves on a trail that winds through a chain of drug-dealers, ex-cons and child abusers, but brings them no closer to Amanda. In the glare of the media spotlight, they join forces with a relentless detective (Ed Harris) and a police captain (Morgan Freeman) – but just as it appears that the case is about to be cracked, in the flash of gunfire, the sad truth of Amanda’s fate is revealed.
Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan
Directed by Ben Affleck (feature debut)
Written by Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard (based on the novel by Dennis Lehane)
1hr 54mins | Rated (R16) | violence, offensive language, drug use | Origin: USA | Official Site »
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Flicks review
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3
For his directorial debut, Ben Affleck returns to his native Boston to present a crime thriller about child abduction, paedophilia and ultimately the ambiguity of moral values and the human conscience. Clearly intended to be viewed as a dark human drama as much as a crime thriller, the genre from which many of the film’s strategies and techniques are borrowed from, Affleck has succeeded in winning himself critical and artistic acclaim that has eluded him since Good Will Hunting set him up as one of Hollywood’s next major talents over a decade ago.
The story is set in motion when a young girl goes missing and the police make little in roads into the case, causing the family to turn to a pair of private investigators with strong ties to the local neighbourhood. Their investigation takes them to the depths of the area’s underbelly as they encounter corruption, violence and depravity that sorely tests their commitment both to the case and their inherent moral values.
While the opening is highly effective, with the atmospheric realism of the setting and some fine underworld banter drawing you into the story and setting up a myriad of plot possibilities, it short changes itself as the running time wears on. This is a film committed to exposing a messy, chaotic world and this impulse leaks into the narrative during the film’s middle stages as the plot threatens to unravel from the labyrinthine journey intended. Add this to the fact that nearly every scene is intended to be an emotional tour de force, the genuinely dramatic and thought provoking finale is robbed of the build up it so richly deserves.
It is not surprising that an actor cum first time director would choose such an approach and frame it within a realistic, natural shooting style and it does make for some impressive performances. Casey Affleck makes a play for the next Leo DiCaprio in the lead role, Amy Ryan is capable of inducing both pity and disgust as the junky mother of the missing child and Ed Harris is the best he has been for a long time in my personal favourite out of any of his work.
Finally, kudos Ben Affleck for giving the audience a piece on child abduction and abuse without playing it for gory shocks or as a melodramatic urban tearjerker. It's safe to say he has more potential as a director than actor, which isn't meant as a backhanded compliment. Well, maybe a little.
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The people's reviews
7 reviews
Press Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times [Roger Ebert]
3
The result is a superior police procedural, and something more -- a study in devious human nature.
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Christchurch Press [Margaret Agnew]
4
As a director, Ben Affleck proves he has a great eye for choosing faces that tell a story. This film is packed with characters who, without even uttering a line, tell a story about where they've been and who they are.
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Hollywood Reporter
It's a tribute to this thoughtful, deeply poignant, splendidly executed film that we replay the conclusion in our minds long after the lights come on.
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NZ Herald [Peter Calder]
3
A nihilistic, atmospheric police procedural set in his hometown, Boston, it has many inspired touches and the performances, particularly Ryan's, are outstanding. But it is all in the service of a hugely complicated story which is too often impenetrable - both visually and dramatically. Worse, its morally ambiguous ending, though cogent enough in philosophical terms, is grim and unsatisfying.
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Premiere Magazine [USA]
2
1/2 It's been well-publicized that Affleck, going for as authentic a feel as possible, cast many genuine South Bostoners in both extra and speaking roles, and, while that's salutary, in some scenes his strategy backfires, yielding caricatures that are merely more vivid than the ones turned out by Central Casting Hollywood productions.
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Rolling Stone [USA]
3
Gone Baby Gone is full of dark secrets, and how they unravel will keep you glued.
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TV3 [Kate Rodger]
3
1/2 The film comes with some unexpected twists and turns and has far from a Hollywood ending, all good - but the by-product of those twists and turns is a fairly convoluted series of events, held together a little too tenuously in parts.
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