Gone Baby Gone is director Ben Affleck's big screen directorial debut, and it is an impressive one. This film is somewhat of a spiritual predecessor to Affleck's better known The Town. Both are set in the dirty neighborhoods of Boston, and both do an excellent job portraying the culture. My guess is that Affleck has some experience with these neighborhoods, as he has either directed or acted in several films set there (Good Will Hunting being another example). Gone Baby Gone is essentially about a phrase we hear all the time: how do you choose between the "lesser of two evils"?
Ben's brother Casey plays private investigator Patrick, who along with his partner/girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired to find a missing little girl, Amanda McCready. The girl's mother is a strung out, coked up piece of work named Helene (Amy Ryan), who makes it clear that she is much more interested in herself than her daughter. Helene's brother Lionel (Titus Welliver) and his wife Bea (Amy Madigan) are the ones that hire Patrick and Angie, and seem to be the ones who actually care about Amanda. Patrick and Angie are helped by two Boston cops, Remy (Ed Harris) and Nick (John Ashton), as well as their superior, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman). Patrick and Angie become set on finding Amanda at all costs.
To give away much more of the plot would give too much away. The film plays as a mystery, guiding the viewer along its twists and turns. It is very much comparable to L.A. Confidential and Mystic River (the author of Gone Baby Gone having also written the latter). Several of the twists I saw coming from a mile away, but there were several others that were genuinely surprising. Affleck gives the viewer just enough to go on to make guesses about what is to happen next, and I was impressed with how this film moved so well from scene to scene. A great mystery leaves you with pieces of the puzzle and leaves you to put them together, and for the most part, this movie does just that.
Not only is there a genuinely engrossing thriller, but the movie presents a bevy of moral questions that very few of us want to answer. At what point does doing the right thing become the wrong thing? How do you choose when you are faced with picking the "lesser of two evils"? What do you do when both options faced before you have morally reprehensible consequences? Example: Do you give money to the homeless man on the street as a stopgap fix? Or will that money only be a crutch and leave him back where he started? Surely he will be better off with the money in hand, if only for a little while. The impoverished need to be helped from those that have it better off. But what if that money is abused and serves no real higher purpose for the man? Would it have been better if you had not given it at all? Gone Baby Gone slaps you in the face with this type of dilemma, and trust me, you won't like your options. After viewing it, I still don't know which side I land on for some of these questions. The film will really make you question your moral leanings, and it serves as a huge emotional punch.
The acting is very good from most every character. Everyone speaks with heavy Boston accents, most of which I bought. The best performance of the film comes from Amanda's mother Helene, played by Amy Ryan (probably better known for her TV roles such as "The Wire" and "The Office"). Ryan has the task of playing a selfish woman that you want to hate. She does drugs, she leaves her daughter alone, and is just downright filthy. You would never want a child you care about to be cared for by her. Ryan is very believable in her role, making it tough on the viewer to root for Patrick and Angie to even find Amanda. If she's found, she goes back to the hellhole that is Helene's life. Ryan plays the character with just enough humanity to show that even the most degenerate humans still care for their child at their very core. I found myself hating her and feeling sorry for her at the same time.
I found Gone Baby Gone at a video resale store for $3.95 on Blu ray. After taking a chance on it, I am very pleased with my meager investment. Ben Affleck proves that he has real talent to direct, and gets some great performances out of his cast. Gone Baby Gone is an engaging thriller that will leave you thinking well past its ending.
4/5
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