00s Movie Review - Gone Baby Gone

Director: Ben Affleck
Genre: Drama/ Mystery/ Crime
Runtime: 114 minutes
Year: 2007
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, Titus Welliver, Amy Madigan, Michael Kenneth Williams

Description: Two Boston area detectives (Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan) investigate a little girl’s kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.

Review: Is a bad deed justifiable if the consequence is ultimately good? What are good intentions worth if the consequences are bad? And what then is good and bad, and do those words have any meaning at all? Such questions arise when watching “Gone Baby Gone”, directed by Ben Affleck and based on the book by Dennis Lehane. Affleck created an engaging, intelligent film.

Private detective couple Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are hired by Helene McCready’s sister-in-law to track down Helene’s missing four-year-old daughter Amanda. They discover that Helene has robbed a drug dealer and suspect that the drug dealer has something to do with Amanda’s abduction. An attempt to strike a bargain with the dealer and exchange the stolen money for the child goes horribly wrong.

Months later, Kenzie works another kidnapping case where he must find and free a missing boy from the hands of a pedophile. In the process, Patrick makes some decisions that are very difficult for him and also stumbles upon a secret that presents him with even more difficult decisions. The question is not so much whether he can make the right decision, but whether there are any at all in our modern society.

It was a good idea by Ben Affleck to keep the moral uncertainties that arise in a disrupted world without a clearly identifiable right or wrong. This keeps the story and a few plot twists interesting. I’ve always liked Ben Affleck more as a directed than an actor, so I’m happy he decided to cast his brother Casey Affleck for the lead role, instead of starrin in it himself. The younger Affleck is in my opinion the better actor of the two and he proves that in “Gone Baby Gone”. Helene McCready is played by Amy Ryan, who really shines in her role.

“Gone Baby Gone” is a really good crime mystery, that is engaging from start to finish. An overlooked film in my opinion, not many people seem to talk about it anymore.

Rating: 4,5 / 5