Ben Affleck Makes an Impressive Directorial Debut With Gone Baby Gone
Written: Oct 24 '07 (Updated Oct 14 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Intense story. Strong cast.
Cons: None of for me. Won't be for everyone. Slower start.
The Bottom Line: Gone Baby Gone was an amazing directorial debut for Ben Affleck. He has created one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.
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| dragonfire88's Full Review: Gone Baby Gone |
Ben Affleck has had something of a troubled career after first receiving notice for the work he did with Matt Damon on Good Will Hunting. Since then, he’s been in several movies, some more popular than others, and he has received a lot of criticism for his acting. While I never thought he was a really great actor, I didn't think he was as terrible as others have said either. I did think he gave a good performance in 2006's Hollywoodland. I've been interested in seeing his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, since I first saw the trailer.
Four-year-old Amanda McCready vanished from her bedroom one night. Amanda’s aunt Beatrice got the media involved and after a few days decided to take matters into her own hands and went to see Patrick Kenzie. He was a private detective who, along with his girlfriend Angie Gennaro, found missing people. Beatrice hoped that he would get the people who didn’t like talking to the cops to talk if they knew something. They had never looked for a missing child before and Angie was hesitant of taking on the case. Amanda’s mother Helene didn’t seem to be as upset as Beatrice.
Jack Doyle was a police officer who was in charge of the division that looked for missing children. He wasn’t exactly happy that Patrick and Angie had been brought into the situation, but he was willing to work with them to find Amanda. Patrick and Angie managed to uncover some information that the police, led by detectives Remy Bressant and Nick Poole, hadn’t found. The four worked together to try to find Amanda.
Gone Baby Gone was based on a book written by Dennis Lehane. I have not read the book, so I don’t know what things were changed for the movie. The movie Mystic River was based on another book written by Lehane. That movie was very good, though I didn’t really care for the ending. Both movies were set in Boston and showed how different people dealt with something horrible.
The movie started off slower while the characters were introduced and the situation was set up. The way that people in the neighborhood were reacting and dealing with what happened, including how the media had the home staked out, was shared. The pace did start picking up once Patrick and Angie started trying to talk to people. I was never bored with what was going on and found the movie to be very engrossing right from the beginning. The little bit of action that turned up in a few scenes blended in perfectly with the rest of the movie and didn’t seem out of place.
A few scenes did include some rather graphic violence that may upset some viewers. A few other things that came up were rather disturbing. This is not a movie for everyone and children shouldn’t see it. There was a lot of swearing, especially in some of the earlier scenes. The word that rhymes with luck, along with some variations, were used many times throughout the movie.
The movie definitely earned the R rating. People that are upset by that type of language may want to stay away from the movie.
Amanda was already missing when Gone Baby Gone started and it was focused in the attempts being made to find out what happened to her and to get her back home safely. Amanda had been missing for three days when Patrick and Angie started trying to find her. As the movie progressed, more things were uncovered, several times through the efforts of Patrick and Angie. I thought there was a decent amount of mystery surrounding what exactly had happened to Amanda and I kept wondering how everything was going to work out. A few scenes also included some suspense that did help keep things interesting. I didn’t figure out exactly what was going on, though at one point I did suspect something before quickly dismissing it. It turns out I was right about the one thing while still having no clue about something else. Thinking back after everything was resolved, there were a few subtle clues dropped here and there, so it wasn’t like the conclusion came out of left field and didn’t fit with what had happened previously like has happened in some other movies. Even though I did figure out one thing, I didn’t think that the movie was predictable.
A lot of time was taken to show how the different characters were dealing with the situation with Amanda. Angie’s first instinct was to not take the case because she didn’t want to find a dead child. Patrick was more willing to get involved and that helped to convince Angie. Beatrice and her husband Lionel were extremely upset and cooperating with the police while Helene sort of wondered around in a drug induced haze. Helene would take the time to talk to the press about how she wanted her daughter back, but her concern for Amanda seemed to vanish when the cameras weren’t around. She didn’t have a good relationship with Beatrice and Lionel, and that came out more than once when insults were tossed around. Affleck didn’t use a lot of flashy techniques, so his direction didn’t detract from the characters or story. In fact it made the movie more powerful. At one point, Patrick was faced with a very difficult decision. It wasn’t easy, but he did what he felt was right. The last shot of the movie, which was rather simple, effectively showed that Patrick had reason to question his decision.
In many movies, when characters are supposed to be more normal, working class people, they don’t look like they fit that description. It could be because the clothes look just a bit too nice or the hair and make up, especially for the women, is just too well done and perfect. I didn’t feel like that happened in this movie. There was realism in the scenes around the neighborhood and the people shown looked like they lived there. Several shots just showed random people around the area talking to each other or something like that. I don’t know for sure, but I’m thinking that people that really lived in the area were used as extras. The fact that the people seemed more believable did add to the movie overall.
Patrick and Angie were living and working together. They had a good relationship even though they didn’t always agree about everything. Patrick was more determined than Angie to take on the case and he kept digging when something didn’t seem right. He struggled with doing what he felt was right in a few decisions. Casey Affleck was really good in the part. Angie was more in the background even though she was working with Patrick to find Amanda. Michelle Monaghan was fine as Angie.
Helene wasn’t a typical mother and did several questionable things. It seemed like she was truly worried about Amanda at times, but others she was more concerned with watching Jerry Springer. Amy Ryan was really good in the part. Lionel and Beatrix didn’t approve of several things Helene did but they loved Amanda. Amy Madigan was really good as Beatrix even though she didn’t have that many scenes.
Morgan Freeman wasn’t in as much of the movie as I had expected him to be. He fit the part of Jack and made the character believable. Remy and Nick were the police detectives working on Amanda’s case. The two men had worked together for several years and worked well together. Ed Harris was wonderful as Remy, giving an absolutely amazing performance. I’ve thought that Harris is a very talented actor for years and wasn’t disappointed with what he did in this movie. He really should get some nominations for this role. John Ashton was fine as Nick without standing out like Harris did.
Main Cast
Casey Affleck - Patrick Kenzie
John Ashton - Nick Poole
Morgan Freeman - Jack Doyle
Ed Harris - Detective Remy Bressant
Amy Madigan - Beatrix McCready
Madeline O’Brien - Amanda McCready
Amy Ryan - Helene McCready
Titus Welliver - Lionel McCready
Ben Affleck - Director
With Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck crafted an engrossing and powerful movie that definitely deserves to be seen. It is one of the best movies I’ve seen this year and is just as good, if not better, than Mystic River.
This review is part of CaptainD's Good Movies Write Off.
Morgan Freeman Movie Reviews
Batman Begins ~ Bruce Almighty ~ Evan Almighty ~ High Crimes ~ Lucky Number Slevin ~ Nurse Betty ~
Recommended:
Yes
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