Directed by: Ben Affleck
Premise: An adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel.
A little girl is kidnapped and her mother (Amy Ryan) recruits a private
investigator (Casey Affleck) to work with the local police find her.
What Works: Gone Baby Gone borrows a lot in
style from Mystic
River, another Lehane adaptation, but this is to the film’s credit, as
the story shares the same kind of characters, locations, and themes. Like Mystic
River, the characters of the film walk the tricky line between trying to do
the right thing and following the rules. In Gone Baby Gone, Casey
Affleck’s character finds this line constantly shifting and his unwavering
attempt to maintain his own sense of righteousness is constantly being
challenged by characters on all sides. The film treats this very smartly.
Corrupt police officers are not simply bad or greedy people, but individuals who
are frustrated with a system that lets heinous criminals go, and in their
attempts to bring about justice the authorities find their own righteousness is
compromised. The acting in Gone Baby Gone is very good, especially by
Casey Affleck as an embattled private detective, Amy Ryan as the drug addicted
mother, and Ed Harris as a passionate police detective. Gone Baby Gone deals with dark and disturbing subject matter,
including violence against children, drug abuse, and pedophilia, and director
Ben Affleck shows a great deal of courage and taste in handling this content.
The film does not water it down but does give just enough detail to avoid being
exploitative and roots the scenes in the horror of the survivors rather than in
the joy of the perpetrator.
What Doesn’t: Although the clues leading up to
the film’s climax are laid out well, the final revelation is a stretch of
credibility. Also, Gone Baby Gone has a troubling finale that opens more
issues than it closes. It is thematically consistent with the film but it is not
entirely satisfying because some of the key issues are left unresolved.
Bottom Line: Gone Baby Gone does a lot right and despite the weakness of the conclusion, it’s a very good film.