Gone Baby Gone (2007)

	Directed by: Ben Affleck	COUNTRY USA GENRE Drama/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Gone Baby Gone RUNNING TIME 114 minutes
	Produced by: Sean Bailey Alan Ladd Jr. Dan Rissner
	Written by (based on the novel by Dennis Lehane): Ben Affleck Aaron Stockard

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Patrick Kenzie	Casey Affleck	½
Angie Gennaro	Michelle Monaghan
Jack Doyle	Morgan Freeman
Remy Bressant	Ed Harris
Nick Poole	John Ashton
Helene McCready	Amy Ryan	½
Bea McCready	Amy Madigan
Lionel McCready	Titus Welliver
Cheese	Edi Gathegi
Leon Trett	Mark Margolis
Amanda McCready	Madeline O'Brien
Corwin Earle	Matthew Maher

Review

When Ben Affleck made his debut as a writer with Good Will Hunting in 1997 alongside his friend Matt Damon, their promising talent created a buzz in the business. Eleven years and a couple of dozen acting performances later, Affleck hasn't quite been able to dazzle equally in front of the camera. When he makes his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone, the notion that his skills behind the camera outshine his thespian talent is certainly reinforced.

The past year has taught us yet another thing about the Affleck family – that kid brother Casey is about to establish himself as one of the leading young performers in the business. He propels Gone Baby Gone forward with unassuming force, thus completing a remarkable breakthrough year, after his brilliant performance in The Assassination of Jesse James. It is Casey's delicate combination of sensitivity and brutish temper that carries the core theme of Gone Baby Gone: how a society as diverse, violent and unfriendly as the 21st-century urban United States will affect its inhabitants unless they are properly cared for. There are wonderful and poetic truths scattered throughout the film – one appearing already in the opening scene, as Affleck's character argues that the things that affect us the most in life are the things we don't choose, which is food for thought.

The script is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River. What the two stories have in common are the gritty environments and the ambivalence of almost every character. Director Affleck acknowledges and works well with these aspects. He demonstrates his familiarity with the milieus and people depicted, and his direction occasionally transcends the traditional yet effective detective style to achieve a moving, poetic touch. The film has a nerve amidst the moral issues and dilemmas it raises, with the one Casey Affleck faces in the final scene being the epitome of them all.

What keeps Gone Baby Gone from achieving the unequivocal effect director Affleck aims for are the somewhat muddled motivations of a couple of key characters and events towards the end. These are motivations that may seem to have been conspicuously contrived for movie characters – and that is not a notion that should enter your mind when viewing a good drama. Casey Affleck's character remains the soul of the story – but towards the end, he isn't only on his own in a moral sense; he is also given the task of purifying an increasingly muddy narrative.

Perhaps Gone Baby Gone's most remarkable feat is its coinciding with the Madeleine McCann case in Europe a few months before the release of the film. There are many striking similarities between the two cases (one being the rather uncanny likeness of the girls), but there are also quite definite differences. They often say that the truth is stranger than fiction. Well, for all its suspenseful plotting, skilful direction, and authentic depiction of working-class Boston, perhaps the one thing Gone Baby Gone is lacking is that it's not quite strange enough.