“Gone Baby Gone” (Miramax)
Good Baby Good
“Gone Baby Gone” marks a strong directorial debut for actor Ben Affleck. He has taken a strong story by Dennis Lehane and fashioned it into a mesmerizing screenplay. He has hired his younger brother Casey and given him the role of his career. Plus he has gotten a rock solid supporting cast to join in and the result is a very good film.
Casey Affleck plays private investigator Patrick Kenzie. He and his girlfriend/co-investigator Angie (Michelle Monaghan) work in Boston. At the start of the film they are hired by Lionel and Beatrice McCready (Titus Welliver and Amy Madigan) to investigate the disappearance of their niece Amanda (Madeline O’Brien).
The police are already working the case but the head of the investigation, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), agrees to share information about the case with them. Patrick and Angie end up working closely with police investigators Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton).
They learn that Amanda’s mother Helene (Amy Ryan) has a checkered past. She is a drug user and has been involved in various illegal activities. Eventually they come to suspect some of her past associates. Still nothing in this case is simple or as it appears to be. There are a million twists and turns before the final unsettling outcome.
Affleck and Monaghan are good in their roles but they look years too young for their parts. It is hard to take them seriously as private investigators when they look like they are teenagers playing at being detectives. This one factor keeps “Gone Baby Gone” from being the triumphant film it should be.
Madigan is amazing in her role, as is Ryan. Harris has some good moments as Bressant, but Freeman is strangely wooden as the policeman with a tragedy in his past.
The film is rated R for profanity and violence.
Ben Affleck makes an impact with his directing. He keeps the film moving and lets the secrets unfold slowly but surely. His work is not that of someone tentative in this new role but rather is that of someone who is assured and confidant.
“Gone Baby Gone” will draw you into its story and hold you there for the length of the film. Its impact will also stay with you long after the movie has ended. Still, as good as Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan are in their roles, they just don’t look the parts. There is even a line in the movie addressing how young Patrick looks and how he can’t possibly be the thirty-one years of age he claims to be.
I scored “Gone Baby Gone” a stay with you 6 out of 10.
