She’s Gone, Baby. Gone.
Until now, we’ve all known Ben Affleck as a decent actor with really bad taste. When he decided to make a film of his own, based on his favorite novel and starring his own brother, nobody took any notice - until now. The end product, Gone Baby Gone, has been well-reviewed, Oscar-nominated, and might just be the career boost that both Afflecks needed.
Gone Baby Gone deals with two inexperienced private detectives, played by Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan, who are hired to find a missing girl. The girl’s mother is an irresponsible drug addict. On their soul-crushing search, they encounter another kidnapped child and enough red herrings to confuse anyone. When Affleck’s character uncovers a conspiracy, he must decide between what he believes is right, and what he feels is best.
Unlike most conspiracy movies, this has something more than personal reputation at stake. When Casey Affleck decides whether to ignore or to uncover the lies, it affects much more than his own status in the underbelly of Boston’s society. You leave the theater wondering what you are supposed to think, and what you are supposed to feel. Today, when we’ve seen every story told a thousand times, this is the only kind of tale that rings true.
The movie is unsettling, but so is the source material. Ben Affleck chose to adapt a very difficult story. It raises many questions, and answers none. When it come to a child’s well-being, who knows best? Is love all you need? What is a mother’s instinct worth? Is it right to enforce justice on your own terms?
The film is filled with unsavory images, some of which were deemed so offensive that moviegoers walked out of the theater. But they are taken from real life. People really live like this, and they really die like this. Ben Affleck only hints at the horrors that exist in the dark corner of a dilapidated house where a demented pedophile dwells. Yet the pedophile himself is childish and confused. At the end of a gun, he is as frightened as one imagines his victims might have been. All of these things are accurate, and all of them are true. They are hard to swallow, and Ben Affleck offers no explanations or apologies.
Some reviewers have pointed out structural problems with the film, which do exist, but bear in mind that Ben Affleck is a relative newcomer to this part of film making. Whether you choose to buy, rent, or borrow a copy of Gone Baby Gone, it’s a film that’s absolutely worth seeing.
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I agree Ben Affleck did a good job as director. The visual style of the film was well suited to drawing out the strengths of the material and the performances were very consistent in tone. Although some of the film’s structural problems could have been alleviated by different directorial choices (I’m thinking particularly of the series of staged debates at the climax), my main issues with the film are plot-based and lie with the script rather than the direction. Criticisms notwithstanding, this is a good movie. Well worth seeing.
It definitely started to fall apart towards the end. Morgan Freeman’s character could have been a little more in-depth and realistic, I think, he seemed a little creepy and obsessive to a degree that I don’t believe was intentional. Also, after the first major “red herring” solution, the film suffers from a sort of false ending, which makes it feel more drawn-out than it is.
But Affleck’s just a baby director yet, and I’m looking forward to what he’s got planned next.