'Gone Baby Gone' features Affleck as director
By Taryn Lentes, Staff Writer
November 7, 2007 | 11 a.m.
If the words “Daredevil,” “Jersey Girl” and “Gigli” sound familiar, the name Ben Affleck probably does not elicit a pleasant response. In his directorial debut Affleck steps behind the camera and out of his slump with this character-driven thriller.
“Gone Baby Gone” is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, author of “Mystic River,” which was also adapted for the screen. The film centers on the disappearance of Amanda, a 4-year-old girl, who is supposedly snatched from her bed in her South Boston neighborhood while her mother is across the street. The little girl’s aunt decides to hire Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend/business partner Angie (Michelle Monaghan), two local, small-time private investigators to help find her, a job that soon takes over every aspect of their lives.
Kenzie and Angie team up with two police detectives, Nick (John Ashton) and Remy (Ed Harris), as well as Chief Doyle (Morgan Freeman) in a chase that becomes increasingly twisted and deceitful. The trail to Amanda will lead Kenzie through a maze of drugs, violence and lies that force him to ask himself not only “Where is Amanda?” but “What is the cost of the truth?”
Both “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone” are set in Boston, the hometown of author Lehane and the Affleck brothers. This hometown connection seems to give Affleck firm ground to stand on as a director. He lingers over shots of the neighborhoods and their inhabitants long enough to transition them from background to actual theme. The people who live in Amanda’s neighborhood are every bit as rundown and desolate as the houses they live in, and the complete hopelessness on their faces contrasts sharply with the herd of hyperactive media who descend after the kidnapping.
The film seems to divide situations and people into black and white categories at first, and like another recent Boston-set film, “The Departed.” Kenzie remarks that everyone he knows is either a criminal or a cop. Kenzie himself is a gray area in this hierarchy. His job is to work with the police to find Amanda, but his biggest asset in the pursuit of that goal is his ability to tap into his network of drug dealers and other assorted people of questionable morals. Although Kenzie is himself a guy who appears to be more comfortable using force then finesse, he spends most of the film attempting to reconcile his tough guy tendencies with his desire to do the right thing. As he explains in the beginning of the film, Kenzie believes, “It’s the things we don’t choose that make us who we are.”
Determining what the right thing is plagues Kenzie throughout the movie and the audience will be similarly torn. Everyone around Kenzie seems convinced of their position, and, on the surface, the distinctions seem clear: cops and criminals, victims and bad guys, innocents and corrupt individuals. However, the true beauty of the film is that it never lets its main character, or its audience for that matter, get too comfortable with the events and choices the story presents.
Casey Affleck offers a great performance as the conflicted Kenzie, and most of the cast turns out a solid performance to back him up. One notable exception is the somewhat forgettable portrayal of Chief Doyle by Morgan Freeman. The character comes up seeming somewhat flat despite the emotional back-story provided to him, but the purpose of the character is still fulfilled adequately enough not to interfere with the story.
“Gone Baby Gone” is an intense film that has both the unexpected plot twists of a Hollywood thriller and the external and personal character conflicts that give the movie more depth and realism then could usually be expected from this genre. The most impressive aspect is the constant balance maintained between the intimate feel of the movie and the big questions it forces both its characters and its audience to examine. As the tagline of the movie reads, “Everyone wants the truth…until they find it.”
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Gone Baby Gone
Critic’s Rating: A
Running Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence, drug content and pervasive language.
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller