“Gone Baby Gone” begins by sweeping through a run-down part of Boston, giving us a view of the area’s lower-class almost as if from the window of a passing car. One seemingly universal truth about poor areas anywhere in the world is that the people all look tired, worn-out by the challenges and obstacles of life that they’ve been unable to surmount. It’s not hard to feel sympathy for many of the adults, but the children have it the worst, because their future options appear more limited, with the likelihood of falling into the cracks of society higher than a fair world would allow.
In this neighborhood, a little girl has disappeared from her bedroom. The police are on the case and fliers are plastered everywhere, but several days have passed with no sign of her. The girl’s aunt approaches Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), a private detective who works with his girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan), mostly to track deadbeat dads. Patrick cautions the aunt about his usual tasks, but she’s insistent.
Patrick and Angie dive right in. Helene (Amy Ryan), the girl’s mother, is a cokehead who might have been an okay stripper before age and drugs tore her looks apart. He meets Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), who bitterly agrees to give Patrick access to the case’s lead investigators, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Aston), two veteran detectives have the appearance people get when they’ve had a rotten job for a whole lifetime. The case takes them deep into world of dope dealers, murderous gang members, and institutional corruption of an unexpected kind.
“Gone Baby Gone” is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the source material for 2003’s “Mystic River.” Like “Mystic River,” this is an excellent film, somber to the core and horrified at the abuses that befall children. It recognizes that these abuses aren’t limited to the physical; neglect and mental degradation will destroy more futures than molestation. Even the well-meaning adults commit abuse via bad deeds done in the name of doing what’s right for the child.
There’s much to rave over in this film, the major directorial debut of much-maligned actor Ben Affleck. The performances are fine all around, with standout work from Casey Afflect, burdened with a strong sense of right and wrong, and Ed Harris, whose moral compass was corrupted a long time ago. Many of the extras are straight off the Boston streets, and their decidedly un-movie appearances enhance the atmosphere, giving us a bleak and real environment rarely shown on the big screen.
As a mystery, it unfolds with reason and care, the solutions placed in front of us to see. Unlike many mysteries, where the characters come to conclusions the audience never could, Patrick solves problems and unveils conspiracies because he has a much greater amount of time than we to consider all aspects of the case. Ben Affleck directs it in such an understated fashion that when decisions are made and violence erupts, it’s all the more powerful.
But if there’s one thing the audience will take away from “Gone Baby Gone,” it’s how this thoughtful film doesn’t buckle or shy away in the face of difficult moral questions. To give them away would be cruel of me, but they appear throughout the film, and no solutions or “correct” answers are offered, just choices with serious consequences for the outcome. That’s life, and they have to live with it.
4.5 out of 5
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