Gone baby Gone

"Based on the Dennis Lehane novel about two Boston area detectives investigating a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally."


First off, gone baby gone. Ben Affleck feel down to the very core, and in a good way too. It’s the Good Will Hunting thing that’s come back to sparkle, granted though not to the same extent.

The film is based on a book (by Dennis Lehane) so complaining of the story would really make this more of a book review. The re-write to script works fine, well suited to the director and the cast. Casey Affleck (Patrick Kenzie) works perfectly in the role as he-doesn’t-look-a-day-over-25-investigator, and everyone down to the extras feel authentic. The mother of the missing girl (who has an un-canny resemblance to missing Madeleine, aka Europe’s heart ache girl who went missing from a hotel in Portugal almost a year ago) is perfect for the role, and a little too convincing in the ending scene where her priorities seem back to being… questionable but reflections of her life experiences.

Wow, that sounded awfully defensive. Don’t take it that way though.

The only real issues I have with this film relate to the answers we get towards the end. The un-folding of the plot after a certain point felt, at the time of watching, a bit un-realistic. However, while writing this and reminiscing in the scenes I realize it’s grown on me rather than the opposite. Then there is Michelle Monaghan (aka Angie Genarro and Casey’s character’s girlfriend and partner in missing-persons cases). Cute girl, probably an awsome actress, but at times I wonder what her role is in the movie except to make the first bar scene logical (threat to the damsel), fill out and ask some of the questions, act as emotional buffer. Her character seems to have a lot more depth and potential than shines through in the film (perhaps the book depicts her differently, perhaps the length of the movie simply didn’t allow for those moments to be included).

All in all, the movie was nice to watch (apart from the whole ‘god no, not the kid’ issue). Definitely one of the better releases of late, with a lot more old school depth and dramaturgy than some of it’s fellows in time. While the hype around We own the night for example out-did this one by far, Gone baby gone works the shoots and the emotional development of the storyline (a bit too many quick cuts between sights of the neighborehood though, but it’s workable).

As far as controversy goes bthw (beyond kimmel f*ing the director), the movie was not released in certain parts of England according to rumors because of the Madeleine case which remains unsolved.

All in all, it’s more than a good job. Not an awsome 'oh wow my hands are shaking' job, but definitely good and intriguing and once you put it on you’ll want to see it through even though you may have issues with some turns of events or the way Casey drawls his ‘h’s.

Desideria