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Title: Gone Baby Gone
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Every year hundreds (if not thousands) of kids are kidnaped everyday. Statistically, if no information on the child is found on day one, less then ten percent of the kids are found. In the case of the abducted Amanda, Chief Doyle (Morgan Freeman) informs private investigator Patrick (Casey Affleck in a career making performance) that it’s been three days. That chilling set up is the premise for “Gone Baby Gone,” a movie that sounds like a typical ransom movie with one major exception: No ransom for the kidnaping appears, and the case is suspicious and illogical, though this is not always apparent. Ben Affleck is known by many people as either the guy who made “Pearl Harbor” a boring movie, or as that guy who was in that highly publicized relationship with Jennifer Lopez. Those movies may have stalled Afflecks career, but he’s slowly making in big comeback in a very smart way.
The first was through a strong supporting performance as George Reeves in “Hollywoodland,” and now he’s directing his little brother in a smart, if not slightly convoluted, crime thriller. While child abduction is certainly not a taboo subject, it’s certainly one of the more touchy subjects. This is mostly evident by the fact that the movie will not be seen in the UK for the foreseeable future, pending whether or not little Madeleine McCann is found soon. And indeed, while I should make note that this movie is a skillfully written and photographed movie, it’s so rough and disturbing that some people may be too bothered to notice. So much is the movie disturbing to watch, that even the characters in the movie suffer panic attacks at several moments in the film. Ah, but I’m forgetting to talk about the story. See what happens when you have art that imitates life.
Sorry, I know that was inappropriate. Moving on; Patrick and his partner/girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are not supposed to be on the case of finding Amanda. They are nothing more then someone watching the story unfold on the news when Amanda’s grandparents, not mother, hire the two to help find her. While Patrick tries to convince them that this is a job for the cops, the grandparents know that Patrick is in a position to get information from people who will not talk to the cops. So talk to people they do, not the least of which is a gang leader who has a personal beef with Amanda’s mother, who apparently stole money from him. He would certainly be the ideal suspect, except that if he did kidnap Amanda, then the question of why no ransom is made comes into question.
Maybe the girl is already dead? Maybe this isn’t even a kidnaping at all. At one point Patrick wonders out loud to his girlfriend whether it’s possible that they were looking at a chase where a random child was kidnaped, raped, and then tossed in the dumpster. Angie sheds some tears and simply replies “I don’t want to find that little girl in a dumpster.” It’s a small moment, but a nice touch, reveling characters who are human beings rather then screenplay conveniences. Likewise Amanda’s mother is a very complicated woman. As a mother she is lousy. She smokes coke, does drugs, and sleeps with gang members. Certainly not someone you want raising a four year old child. For a good portion of the film she seems shockingly neutral towards the whole situation, before her true feelings finally break out of her.
If the movie has one weakness it’s that the movie may have one twist ending too many. While all the twists make sense, and some even surprise you greatly, it is bothersome to go through so many. Many films would be happy having one great twist. This one has three. On that level, the movie suffers from being too ambitious, which probably causes it to, ironically, be less ambitious then it would have been with some restraint. Still, this is a good film. It’s certainly not boring, and Affleck shows that, like Ron Howard, he may be an actor who was really born to be a director. Only time will tell whether he rises to the challenge.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -