Gone Baby Gone

By AL Wallace

This is a movie I missed on the big screen and with great luck, saw it on a big screen ( over a 100 in screen at my son's HD projection home theatre.) Not surprising that after all of the misses and poor scripts that Ben Affleck has been involved in that this movie, even after getting a lot of critical praise did, mediocre in the theatres. 

All I can say is that in it's genre of Crime, Drama/Gangster this is one of the best if not the best of 2007. Sure you can even compare in quality of plot and acting to the Oacar winning No Country for Old Men.  Ben Affleck makes his directorial debut as well as a gets screen writer credit on the movie.  Adapted from the novel by Dennis Lehane ( MysticRiver) I am shocked that looking back at the 2007 Oscar's it didn't get a nod there.  The plot revolves around the disappearance and ultimate kidnapping of a little girl in pretty tough and street wise neighborhood in Boston MA. Amy Ryan plays the pathetic mother who you will either want to wish she finds drug rehab or should be brought up on charges as the ultimate unfit mother. Her performance although not Oscar winning was well deserving of her nomination last year.  Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris put in good performances as members of the police, but are getting a little old for these parts. 

Now back to Ben! Honestly I really had no idea what to expect when I watched it, after seeing so many recent flops that Ben has been involved in over the last few years. However he and his long time friend Matt Damon did write an Oscar winning script for Good Will Hunting, and garnered other awards in that movie.  I should have had a little more faith.  This plot twists and turns and when you just start thinking you have it figured out, a little voice tells you this is to neat and wrapped up to be real and then it goes off on another wild turn.  Casey Affleck plays the main part as a simple inexperienced detective hired reluctantly to help find the missing girl and then with grit and determination follows up on every plot twist no matter where it goes.

The theme of the movie, an abduction of a little girl, the possibility of child abuse and molestation, death and drugs will turn off many people but the movie does not dwell on these, rather puts them in perspective to the overall problem of finding the girl, and the realities of this segment of life in this tough part of town.  Nothing is obvious but clues are there.  Like most people you'll miss the subtleties of these and have to re-think the plot in your mind as yet another plot twist reveals itself.  Then you'll go back and understand that it all fits in this crazy mixed up drama.

Finally some movies have a glue, an ensemble of actors where each one just gets their part and plays it just right.  This is what makes some movies not just good but great.  Gone Baby Gone fits that rare moment in cinema where the story, how it is written, directed, and acted, and in the just the right locations and sets that make for a great and rewarding picture. A message and finally a real tough moral dilemma toward the end of the movie for our main protagonist detective will stick with you long after seeing it. A look into the darker sides of human nature and the drama that goes on right before our eyes in Anytown USA.