Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck is held up by some as a joke. The shining example of a lack of talent and too much publicity creating an unfairly successful individual.

Personally I think he gets a lot of crap thrown at him that others deserve more readily.

The stock line I read when Gone Baby Gone was announced with Ben Affleck as co-screenwriter and director was "I hope he directs better than he acts".

Well I think his acting isn't as consistently risible as some critics portray and I certainly think his directorial debut should be judged on its own merits, not on the receding stench of Jennifer Lopez.

Gone Baby Gone is the story of a kidnapped girl taken from a rough neighbourhood in Boston. Patrick Kenzie (played by Casey Affleck) and his professional and romantic partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are private detectives who specialise in finding missing persons. The pair are hired by the missing girl's aunt as they can get answers from people who won't say a word to someone in a uniform.

The head of the investigating department of the police, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) initially dismisses the pair, particularly Kenzie, as being inexperienced and loud mouthed but he is forced to allow them access to the investigation through Detectives Bressant (Ed Harris) and Poole (John Ashton, probably best known for his role in Beverly Hills Cop).

It is of no surprise that Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris are absolutely superb but the real revelation is Casey Affleck. Switching between understated and violent, charming and stoic, Affleck is consistently credible and powerful.

Moments of complete fear and vulnerability are effecting to both the character and the audience and usually in films a character vomiting is a signifier of how the audience is meant to feel, but this time I was right there with Kenzie.

Yet in other scenes Kenzie is the smallest man in the room but you simply wouldn't back against him, not purely because of the audience's agreement with the film that he is the hero, but because Affleck manages to be utterly ferocious and undeniable.

At one point Kenzie has a gun pointed to his face and I thought both of the Affleck brothers' choices in the scene were enthralling. And as a friend of mine would say, the "Act Your Ass Off" moments come thick and fast with Affleck able to goe toe to toe with Freeman and Harris convincingly.

The choices in the use of camera, dialogue and the supporting cast aims to authentically portray the strange mix of togetherness and danger that only someone who has lived in such places can recognise. Boston has a real personality in Gone Baby Gone and it is the clash of class and perspective that drives the central themes of the film.

It is difficult to go into the plot without being spoiler heavy to the point of ruination, but while there are a few overly obvious pointers to where things are headed, this is a strong film with plenty of intelligence and emotion which could easily have been cloying and contrived but instead remains purposeful and provocative up to and including the final shot.

Some reviewers I have glanced at over here see this as being a film with moral ambiguity yet for me I think the moral center of the film is utterly unwavering.

The central question that is posited is "Can all reactions be forgiven in the face of utter evil?".

For some reason the current political and social climate in America as pertains to foreign policy haven't been linked to Gone Baby Gone as far as I have seen, but to me the pragmatism and moral certainty of Kenzie is a direct response to the media's attempts to cloud the correct choices.

A very solid directorial debut from Ben and a breakout performance from Casey, well worth a viewing.