Ben Affleck continues his career rehabilitation by stepping behind the camera for the first time and delivering a somber thriller based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (who also penned the source material for Clint Eastwood's superior and similar themed Mystic River). Gone Baby Gone tells the story of relatively unsuccessful private eye, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) who spends most of his time tracking down people who go missing of their own accord, particularly when drugs or alcohol may be involved. He lives in a run down apartment in a bad part of Boston with his girlfriend and "business associate" Angie (Michelle Monaghan) getting by on small jobs and lost relatives. He strikes the motherload of "little girl lost" cases, though, when an agitated woman (Amy Madigan) approaches him about locating her niece, Amanda, who has the great fortune of being the sort of blue-eyed, blonde-haired dream child that incites media blitzes. Taking on the biggest case in Boston pits Patrick instantly against professional police detectives who look down upon his amateurish style and locals who resent his prying into their personal business.The film's inspection of a world within a world, the underbelly of Boston and its many unsavory locales, is riveting, authentic stuff. Both Afflecks put their knowledge of the city to good use in creating a film that gives a weighted realism to a surreally tragic story. One of the great touches to this mystery is the way it doubles as a morality tale. Not all the villains are all that evil. And not all the "good guys" are worth that title. Amanda's mother Helene (Amy Ryan) is a junkie and perhaps even a criminally negligent mother. However desperate she is to find her child, there is still a sense of complexity to the circumstance that elevates it beyond trite melodrama. It's not just a grieving mother and the evil men who stole her daughter. There's more to it than that. And it's a better film for it.
There's also no doubt that the movie's cast carries it to another level. Casey Affleck, the lesser known and proportionally more respected of the Affleck brothers, is in the midst of a breakout year. Thankfully, he is as captivating here as the baby-faced, good-hearted, but necessarily brutal Kenzie as he was as the grimly obsessive Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The supporting cast, which also includes Morgan Freeman in fine form and Ed Harris in a scene stealing turn as a morally ambiguous detective, equals Affleck's riveting prowess. Probably the only complaints that could be justifiably made are those against Michelle Monaghan who, despite being tremendous in other roles, has very little to do here besides watch and occasionally cry.
The film itself has a few rough patches where the gears of adaptation turn a little too obviously. There is what seems to be a massive tangent midway through the film that comes sort of bristling in to our surprise. It's vital and maybe even the film's most gripping section (there's a scene involving a raid on a pedophile's home that could be the most chilling and unforgettable action sequence anywhere this year). The trouble is that what works in the grand scope of a novel sometimes makes a film seem cluttered and unfocused. The movie runs in circles a bit, but in the end we're treated to a captivating film full of suspense and questions worth considering about the nature of justice in both its official, legal form and its simpler, human varieties.
Grade: B+
