There was a time when the mention of Ben Affleck drew groans from those who were listening.
Not anymore.
"Gone Baby Gone" is Affleck's directorial debut and his return to screenplay writing, adapted from a novel by Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River"). Writing is Affleck's strong suit, having won Best Original Screenplay in 1998 for "Good Will Hunting" with college pal Matt Damon.
Chalk up directing next to this.
Boston private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, Ben's younger brother) and Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) normally handle small incidents to investigate-alimony, infidelity-but nothing too big.
However, when local 4-year-old girl Amanda McCready is abducted, they get knee-deep in the investigation when her grandmother Beatrice (Amy Madigan) comes to hire Patrick and Angela to augment the investigation by talking to locals in the Dorchester neighborhood who "don't talk to the police," as Beatrice puts it.
Upon arrival into the investigation, Patrick and Angela come face-to-face with Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), who became head of the lost children division of the Boston Police since he lost a child of his own once. Ordered by Doyle to work with the young P.I.'s is detectives Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton).
Butting heads at times, Remy and Patrick don't see eye to eye. Remy sees Patrick as a young punk who knows too many other local deviants to be a good guy, yet Patrick views Remy as a man who blurs the line between good and bad. Yet, their goal remains the same: find the girl.
The elder Affleck shows here what he's best at: behind the camera work. Not only has he gloriously adapted Lehane's novel perfectly but also made the wise decision of giving himself the director's chair to craft a beautifully intense movie that is very much an allegory for innocence lost.
Casting the younger Affleck was wise to extend that metaphor for youth gone (the character is supposed to be older) but not just for artistic purposes. Casey Affleck is a revelation, very much the anchor to this deep drama. We see through his eyes all the damage, physical and mental, that losing a child causes. This performance moves him from second comic fiddle in the "Ocean's" films to strong lead dramatic actor.
Harris is a bubbling, boiling example of acting intensity. One second he's asking a calm, cool question-the next he's swiping items off a table to growl the question a second time. Freeman does not narrate this, thankfully, but gives even more emotional depth as a Jack Walsh-type character who does not fit into Freeman's recent work of good, clean and shiny men. Here, he is a hard man to cross.
"Gone Baby Gone" is a terrific exposition about innocence lost from the brothers Affleck, with Casey shining in a terrific lead dramatic performance and Ben directing superbly in a powerful, heart wrenching film, one of the best of the year.
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