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Gone
Baby Gone
Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery
Rated: R
Directed
by: Ben Affleck
Starring: Casey
Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed
Harris, John Ashton, Amy
Ryan, Amy Madigan
Released by: Miramax Pictures
In
Short: This not-to-be-missed crackerjack
tale of a missing girl and two local P.I.s
hired to find her among the mean streets of
Boston marks the impressive directorial debut
of Ben Affleck. |
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 View
the Trailer |
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A Practically Perfect Crime
Hitting
the Mean Streets of Boston with the Affleck Boys
by
Jenny Peters
With
a series of not-so-successful acting gigs (“Gigli,” “Paycheck,” “Surviving
Christmas,”) behind him, Ben Affleck decided to
shift gears. Dusting off the 1997 Best Writing Academy
Award he received along with Matt Damon for “Good
Will Hunting,” Affleck teamed up with Aaron Stockard
to adapt Gone Baby Gone, Dennis Lehane’s
evocative crime novel about a child abduction that happens
in a working-class Boston neighborhood.
This time, Affleck went a step further, also
directing the gripping tale, a modern-day film noir
that completely evokes the tough streets of the town
he grew up in. Wisely, the 35-year-old decided to leave
the acting to others; thus there’s no feeling
of this being a vanity piece. He did keep it all in
the family, casting his brother Casey in the
lead role of local P. I. Patrick Kenzie, who is called
in to help the cops find a 5-year-old girl who has
gone missing out of her own bedroom. Casey’s
performance is perfect as the neighborhood guy who
is able to ferret out information from the locals that
the police cannot, working the case alongside his partner
(and lover) Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan).
Those
cops are a formidable group, both as characters and
actors. With Morgan Freeman giving one of the best
performances of his career as Police Chief Jack Doyle,
a man whose own child was snatched and murdered;
an eye-opening Ed Harris as his top detective, a
tough-as-nails transplanted Cajun; and a completely
believable John Ashton as his tenacious partner,
Ben Affleck proves he knows actors, and “Gone
Baby Gone” was cast with just the right person
in every role.
The most affecting and impressive performance in the
film is that of Amy Ryan, as the abducted girl’s
mother, a disgusting heroin addict and drug mule who
feeds on the media attention she receives as her daughter’s
case becomes national news. Top-notch, too, are Titus
Welliver as her disgusted brother and Amy Madigan as
his distraught wife, and the only person that really
cares for little Amanda, the girl who is “Gone
Baby Gone.”
What
sets this story apart from a typical crime thriller
are the densely-layered personal relationships and
searing characterizations that jump off the screen,
the powerful moral dilemmas that the detectives encounter
along the way and an extremely clever plot that keeps
viewers gripped until the final unsettling frames
unspool.
“Gone
Baby Gone” is truly a classic in the genre,
and one worthy of the same accolades that
two other recent Boston-based crime films—“The
Departed” and “Mystic River” (also
based on a Lehane novel)—have received in past.
Expect Oscar nominations for this one, too, and perhaps
some key wins.
Who
knew Ben Affleck had this much talent waiting
to blossom?
PNJ101707 |
(Updated
09/08/09 AJR) |
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