FILM CHALLENGE: 120) Gone Baby Gone

120) Gone Baby Gone

Director: Ben Affleck

Year: 2007

Plot Summary: Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator from the gritty Boston neighbourhood of Dorchester, is called in when a four-year-old girl vanishes without trace. The cops, headed by hard-nosed detective Remy Bressant and captain Jack Doyle have no leads, though suspicion naturally falls on the child's patently unfit drug addict of a mother. Patrick thinks differently, however, following a line of inquiry that takes him and partner Angie Genarro into a dark web of drug peddlers, ex-convicts and murderous paedophiles.

Ben Affleck's directoral debut is without a doubt the best thing he has done in his career. While, of course, it's not a work of art, Gone Baby Gone is as gripping, suspenseful and well constructed as any mystery story you are likely to encounter.

As a Boston native, Affleck does a wonderful job of putting you into the world of the movie. He understands the people, the culture and the way of life and incorporates all of those features into Gone Baby Gone to make it feel authentic and realistic. However, that's not to say that the movie needed to be set in Boston, as Affleck's crime drama is the kind of story that could be set anywhere in the world and have the feel life-like. After all, it's a timely story about one of the great fears in modern society: missing children.

How we look after our children is unquestionably the main theme of Gone Baby Gone as much of the story revolves around the family of four year old Amanda. However, one of the film's strongest features is that it never leaves you with a definitive answer to the question as the credits roll. Instead, it provokes thought and discussion about what, in fact, is the correct and moral way to raise a child. Even a year after watching this for the first time - this was now my second viewing - the moral dilemma that lead actor Casey Affleck faces in the final moments of the story is one that still haunts me.

Casey, who I have always felt is a highly underrated actor, does nothing to change my opinion here. After the vulnerable, sensitive and troubled character he captured in The Assassination Of Jesse James, he almost effortlessly switches into the confident and hot-tempered Patrick Kenzie here, a private detective who succeeds in getting further with the investigation than the police because he's a working class, neighbourhood boy. Nevertheless, it's Amy Ryan who steals the whole movie here with a deservedly Oscar nominated performance as the mother of Amanda.

4/5

By Daniel Sarath with 4 comments