Gone Baby Gone: Movie Review (2007)

Directed by Ben Affleck, written by Affleck and Aaron Stockard, based on Dennis Lehane's novel, 115 minutes, rated R.

(Originally published 2007)

After seeing Ben Affleck's solid directorial debut in "Gone Baby Gone," maybe it's time to suggest that the actor give up his day job and turn to writing and directing full time. If this movie of his is any indication, he could have a serious go of it.

What Affleck has on his hands with "Gone" isn't at all what one would expect from the star of so many modern-day bombs--"Pearl Harbor," "Surviving Christmas," "Jersey Girl," "Paycheck," "Daredevil" and the infamous "Gigli" chief among them. Sure, "Hollywoodland" offered a brief escape from all that dreck, but then came "Smokin' Aces," and it seemed as if Affleck's career had gone up in smoke again.

Not so with "Gone Baby Gone," which is, in fact, a mature, engrossing drama that features a script that bests his Academy Award-winning screenplay for "Good Will Hunting," which he co-wrote with friend Matt Damon.

Whereas that film was shot through with sentimental overtones, "Gone" brings the world into more base, disturbing focus, with Affleck and cinematographer John Toll working hard to capture a working-class section of Boston that reeks of havoc, desperation, drug use and danger.

The film stars Affleck's brother Casey as Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator living with his girlfriend and business partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) in Dorchester, Mass., when into their lives come a business opportunity in the wake of a 4-year-old girl's abduction, which has caused a local sensation.

Though the girl's cocaine- and heroin-addicted mother (Amy Ryan) has all but shut down, her brother (Titus Welliver) and sister-in-law (Amy Madigan) want that baby back, and they're willing to pay for outsiders to glean the sort of inside information they know the locals won't share with the police.

Angie doesn't want to take the job--she knows it will become emotionally consuming--but one look at a photo of the kidnapped girl nevertheless finds her agreeing to do so.

Soon, each is on the case, which means working the living rooms, backrooms and sleazy bars in the surrounding area. The police aren't happy about it, but Patrick and Angie push forward, doing their best to navigate the icy head of the missing-person's unit (Morgan Freeman) and two sketchy detectives (Ed Harris, John Ashton), while also trying to obtain information from the difficult denizens of Dorchester themselves, who in this movie are as hardcore as they come.

Beyond the performances, which uniformly are excellent, and the way the movie hooks into a noirish series of twists and surprises toward the end, what's so satisfying about Affleck's film is how authentic it feels.

The director knows this neighborhood--he grew up not far from it--and he doesn't cheat it by making it something it isn't. In this way, he recalls something of a young Spike Lee. He isn't afraid to come home and tell the truth about these people in ways that nobody will mistake for flattery, particularly when he allows his characters to open their mouths and speak, which reveals, shall we say, a slightly cruder side of humanity.

Going there takes respect for a place and its people, but it also takes guts, which, when Affleck isn't spilling them on the floor as the investigation mounts, the director proves he has in spades.

Grade: B+