Rated: R for violence, drug content and pervasive language. Runtime: 114 mins. Director: Ben Affleck Writer: Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard Cast: Casey Affleck; Michelle Monaghan; Morgan Freeman... complete cast Tagline: Everyone Wants The Truth... Until They Find It. Genre: Horror / Thriller Memorable Quote: "He lied to me. Now I can't think of one reason big enough for him to lie about that's small enough to matter. " Release Date: October 19, 2007 Distributor: Miramax Films Official Site:www.gonebabygone-themovie.com/ View the Trailer:www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/gonebabygone/trailer1/
Reel commentary: ... What's troublesome about Gone Baby Gone is its feigned use of the audience's natural sympathy for children to elicit emotions about child abduction and abuse ... full review
By Louis Boram
In 1997, at age 25, Ben Affleck shared Oscar-winning writing credit with fellow actor Matt Damon on their original screenplay Good Will Hunting. Ten years hence Affleck returns with Gone Baby Gone (adapted from the novel by Mystic River author Dennis Lehane), co-scripted with newcomer Aaron Stockard. This time Affleck ups the creative ante by using the film to showcase his directorial debut. It's a daring effort but the resulting offering is an only passable mystery crime drama with a cock-and-bull conclusion intent on ironhanded audience manipulation.
Romantically involved Boston, MA private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, Ocean's Thirteen) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, The Heartbreak Kid) are asked by the aunt and uncle of four-year-old Amanda McCready to augment the police investigation into the kidnapping of their niece. They believe that Kenzie and Gennaro can finesse cagey neighbors who don't ordinarily cooperate with police. A likable homegrown product with a baby face, Kenzie knows the downtrodden neighborhood well but neither he nor Gennaro has ever investigated a kidnapping case. They have the added disadvantage of plunging into the case three days after the kidnapping. With the clock ticking, the detectives must navigate Amanda's dingy, crime infested Boston neighborhood as Kenzie persists to keep his reluctant promise to Amanda's mother to find her missing daughter everyone knows that as each minute passes the chances of finding Amanda alive diminish.
What's troublesome about Gone Baby Gone is its feigned use of the audience's natural sympathy for children to elicit emotions about child abduction and abuse. The preposterous final act which concedes the real motives for Amanda's kidnapping offers up child abduction and abuse as red herrings that have no relevance to the storyline.
Surely one of the film's most disappointing aspects is director Affleck's inability to induce a star-making performance from his younger brother. The pubescent-looking Casey Affleck doesn't command the camera, in spite of being surrounded by veteran actors like Ed Harris (as Detective Remy Bressant) and Morgan Freeman (Police Captain Jack Doyle).
The singularly elevated acting performance is by Amy Ryan (TV's The Wire) as the missing Amanda's drugged out, criminally negligent, and profane mother Helene McCready. Ryan delivers an uncompromising performance of objectionable behavior, leaving you to marvel at the degree to which she dares you to maintain sorrow for Amanda's despairing mother.
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