Genre: Crime Drama, Mystery Thriller
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Amy Ryan
Running Time: 115 minutes
I don’t normally review DVD’s, but after seeing this fantastic film from 2007, I felt compelled to write about it. Based on the novel of the same name, Gone Baby Gone is set in the backstreets of Boston, and follows two private investigators that have been hired by the family of a missing four year old girl. Contending with uncooperative cops, vicious gangsters and the girls own cocaine addicted mother, the detectives put their own lives on the line in an attempt to find the girl before it is too late. Perfectly cast and beautifully shot, this film is a modern work of art, a masterpiece of tension and drama. The moral ambiguity it presents is a breath of fresh air to the faltering crime/cop genre, and the ending will leave you in tears.
Gone Baby Gone marks the directorial debut of high profile actor Ben Affleck, the star of Hollywood films including Daredevil and Pearl Harbour. This may cause in many people a certain degree of scepticism, so let me tell you straight up that his direction is superb. The beautiful camerawork draws you into each and every scene, whether it be a frenetic gunfight or a lingering shot of the Boston neighbourhood. The city becomes a character in itself, brimming with emotion and, one suspects, many other untold stories of equal tragedy. The screenplay, which was co-written by Affleck and Aaron Stockard, is phenomenal, both in its overarching story and in its authentic dialogue and well developed characters. The cast is unanimously brilliant, and although Amy Ryan received most of the critical acclaim for her portrayal as the grief stricken junkie mother of the kidnapped child, the rest of the actors are in my mind equally impressive. Casey Affleck (Ben’s younger brother) is fantastic as the young investigator whose belief in what is right is so strong that he will do some truly terrible things to see it realised. Ed Harris, in a role that one would associate with Ed Harris, is the veteran cop who is tired of the hard life. And Morgan Freeman, who elevates every role he takes into something extraordinary is at his best as the Police Captain Jack Doyle. Even the minor characters in the film, including the members of the grieving family and an array of criminals are wonderfully portrayed by a great group of supporting players.
A film with this subject matter has enormous storytelling potential, but it also runs the risk of being overly manipulative. Gone Baby Gone toes the line, and although it features many moments of unflinching tragedy, it never strays into melodrama. The violence in this film is sparse, but is all the more horrifying because of it, and many people may find it hard to watch. The revelation in the final act of the film is a little unbelievable, but otherwise the movie is grounded in reality, filled with believable dialogue, characters and situations, and the last line of the movie is I think my favourite ending of all time. Delivered perfectly by someone totally unaware of the implications of what she says, it is a perfect summary of the film, and is completely heart-breaking. Gone Baby Gone is a film that handles it’s themes of home, family and morality with such ease that it will make you wonder why more films aren’t as good as this, and I believe that in the years to come it will be remembered as a truly classic piece of cinema
Gone Baby Gone is available on DVD now.
