Gone Baby Gone

Year: 2007
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Amy Ryan, John Ashton

Gone Baby Gone is actor Ben Affleck's directorial debut, and it's quite an achievement, garnering one Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

The film takes place in Boston, where a little girl called Amanda McCready has been kidnapped. The local police do all they can to investigate her abduction, but Amanda's aunt Beatrice (Amy Madigan) decides to hire outside help.

Enter private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), who aren't exactly experienced in cases like this. But they decide to accept the case anyway. Their investigation however isn't smooth as they are being discouraged by the local police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and the girl's irresponsible crackhead mother Helene (Amy Ryan), who refuses to cooperate or even show concern for her child. Doyle assigns his two senior officers, Nick Poole (John Ashton) and Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) to let Patrick and Angie assist them in finding Amanda.

They learn that Amanda may have been kidnapped because of a drug deal gone wrong, and try to get her back by paying off the dealers. But things go wrong and they lose Amanda. However Patrick isn't quite finished with his investigation, and he slowly uncovers the truth about the kidnap, and the real players involved.

Ben Affleck does tremendously well with his first film, hiring the right cast and hitting all the right notes. It's gritty, dramatic and dark, just as the way it should be. It's based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Mystic River, and both films share the same qualities mentioned. One wonders if Boston really is like that in reality. It would be scary indeed.

Ben's little brother Casey is perfect as the lead character. As Patrick, Casey turns in a sterling performance as a man who takes up the case out of pride perhaps, but then slowly changes towards the end as a man who wants to do the right thing, despite what everyone else says. Monaghan, Ashton and Harris also provide great support. Harris in particular, never disappoints. It is Amy Ryan however that is mesmerising as the hopelessly unreliable Helene, and truly deserves her Oscar nomination.

I only wished that the local censors weren't so uneven with the profanity cuts, it really disrupted the movie's flow. But for those of you who are able to watch films censor free, go for this one. (4/5)