Gone Baby Gone (2007) Miramax Films
1 hr. 55 mins.
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Madigan, Amy Ryan, Titus Welliver, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jill Quigg
Directed by: Ben Affleck
This film is rated: R

Rating: *** stars (out of 4 stars)

Bostonian brothers the Afflecks are joined together cinematically at the hip as they roam in their familiar intriguing backyard of Beantown for the rousing kidnapping caper Gone Baby Gone. Oscar-winning scriber Ben ("Good Will Hunting") does an admirable job as writer/director (in his first directorial debut no doubt) and demonstrates his inherent feel for the somber yet absorbing material. As for Casey, the younger sib stars in this riveting urban melodrama fresh off of his Oscar-worthy turn in Andrew Dominik's ambitious western The Assassination of Jesse James from the Coward Robert Ford. Whether or not a friendly sibling rivalry playfully exists on or off the big screen, the Afflecks effectively clicks on all dramatic cylinders. Essentially, Gone Baby Gone is an insightfully nightmarish New England-based narrative about a contemplative murder-mystery in the murky and deceptive streets of The Hub.

Remarkably, Affleck (the filmmaker) has a keen calculating eye for the tortured morality play that takes place on the salacious sidewalks of his real-life hometown where bluebloods and bombastic blue-collared souls equally pound the pavement in cynical unity. Granted that Ben's past monotonous movie vehicles ("Pearl Harbor", "Gigli", "Surviving Christmas", "Jersey Girl", "Smokin' Aces" or "Paycheck" anybody?) doesn't leave much to be desired in considering him a durable thespian. However, Affleck (along with co-writer Aaron Stockard) shows confidence and resilience behind the camera lens and his scripting of Dennis Lehane's sprawling best-selling novel is vividly executed with taut conviction.

Unintentionally, Gone Baby Gone may evoke the metropolitan seediness of other Boston-based melodramas such as Clint Eastwood's immensely heralded and haunting Mystic River (another film based on a Lehane tome) or Martin Scorsese's intense The Departed. As with these aforementioned crime dramas, Gone Baby Gone delves into the dysfunctional working-class milieu of a northeastern city riddled with social decay. Affleck embodies the corruption, corrosion and carelessness that permeate with seething emphasis in the havoc-driven hamlet of Boston's unpredictable boundaries. Crisp direction, top-notch performances and a methodical pacing gives Gone Baby Gone its disturbing luster.

Dorchester-based private eye Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) struggles to solve the abduction of a 4-year old local girl named Amanda McCready from his neck of the woods. Amanda's kidnapping is all the rage and Kenzie looks to capitalize on putting this agonizing incident to rest. Kenzie's girlfriend and business partner Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, "The Heartbreak Kid") is along for the ride but is very skeptical about her lover's involvement with a high-profile case that may take its toll on the psychological makeup of their personal/working relationship. After witnessing the missing girl's precious photo, Angela can't help but to reluctantly assist Kenzie in tracking down the absent child.

The girl's neglectful drug-addled mother Helene (Amy Ryan) and her acid-tongued best friend Dottie (Jill Quigg) aren't much help in offering any details and have a disdain for Angela that harks back to their high school days. Both Kenzie and Angela are driving up a dead end street with no recourse to turn back around in another direction. Still, they dig and dig within the realm of their dingy domains.

Thankfully, Helene's brother Lionel (Titus Welliver) and dignified sister-in-law Beatrice (Amy Madigan) want their niece Amanda back despite the indifference of their strung-out relative. So the married couple are more than willing to try and give Kenzie and Angela a chance to probe the Dorchester residents whereas law enforcement would scare them off with their inquiries. Not thrilled by the slight recognition of the community or the efforts in Kenzie carrying out his self-imposed investigation in various homes and shady establishments is the Boston P.D. Missing-Persons Unit. Specifically, weary head cop Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and his two bewildered detectives Bressant and Poole (Ed Harris and John Ashton) are fed up with being upstaged by Kenzie's soul-searching antics and his ability to get into the hidden angles where they are stifled.

The director Affleck concocts an authentic topsy-turvy street-smart crime saga that instinctively gives the Boston underclass belly a three-dimensional vulgar edginess. The whole feeling--the obligatory punctuated accents, the hardcore denizens, the fine line between crooked cops and defeated citizens, confined and rotted three-decker homes and ragged quaint bars/pubs--is accentuated by the way Affleck intimately draws the audience into his perplexing puzzle. Misguided politics, the ignorance and incompleteness of cynical people and the eroding protocol of decency--all paint an unflinching portrait from the tense world that Affleck knows affectionately from his Boston-bred upbringing. A little exploitation doesn't hurt Affleck's cause here because he visits the emotional territory of disdain, distrust and the distraught with sauciness.

The blending of veteran performers (mainly Freeman, Harris, Madigan and Ashton) compliment the relatively unknown faces such as Ryan's self-destructive single mother that gives a rugged believability to this concrete jungle caper. Affleck--Casey that is--is absolutely involving as the inquisitive protagonist stepping on the touchy toes of disillusioned participants (good guys, bad guys and the innocent) that may hold the key to the big picture at large. The welfare of an impressionable youthful face whisked away in a turbulent abyss of Boston's hardened landscape is never buried but bombarded skillfully from the schematic twists and turns that prevail at the hands of Ben Affleck's deliciously sordid imagination.

Tension-filled and starving for a sense of moral complexity, Gone Baby Gone is a gritty story about how anyone--young and old, privileged or poor--can get systematically swallowed up without a trace of hope. Resourcefully, we're invited to an impersonal universe where if you can't fend for yourself then expect the overwhelming malaise to sustain where the low are ridiculously living high.

Frank Ochieng
@ World Voice News (2007)