Check Out the Trailer

Ben Affleck slides from in front of the camera to behind it, making a declaration that he is a serious filmmaker to stand with the likes of other actor-turned-directors such as Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, the writer of MYSTIC RIVER, this tense crime drama plays out like a solid procedural, finally cumulating in a gripping morality debate that can divide audiences down philosophical lines. This film lives in the grey margins where opposite views can be equally right and wrong at the same time.

A young girl goes missing. Private eye couple, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, GERRY) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, NORTH COUNTRY), are called on by the aunt of the young girl to supplement the police investigation, focusing on the neighborhood element of the investigation. The distraught aunt Bea (Amy Madigan, FIELD OF DREAMS) and her husband Lionel (Titus Welliver, TV’s DEADWOOD) love their niece; possibly more than the girl’s own white trash mother Helene (Amy Ryan, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD). Police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman, MILLION DOLLAR BABY) reluctantly connects Patrick and Angie with the lead investigator on the case, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris, THE TRUMAN SHOW). As the private eyes poke around they discover that many people in the working class Boston neighborhood have their own reasons for keeping secrets about the missing girl.

The Boston native Affleck knows his hometown well, filling with nooks and crannies of the frame with authentic faces. His attention for detail adds an authenticity to the overall production, allowing the viewer to be sucked into the drama. The first half sets up the private eye characters and the second half shows us how the investigation has changed them. Affleck has a great deal of patience to allow the material to play out at its own pace without showing his hand too soon.

Oscar nominee Amy Ryan is remarkable. She bravely crafts an unlikable character without an ounce of self-reference. Her performance is key to the final theme about parental rights versus what is better for the child. Casey Affleck, who was nominated this year for ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, is a strong leading man, who fits the role perfectly. He’s a pretty boy living in a rough neighborhood and he knows that his appearance makes him have to be smarter. Madigan, in a small role, makes a memorable impression as the “real” mother of the little girl.

Few thrillers provide the kind of debate that GONE BABY GONE elicits. It provokes deep thoughts that we rarely have to address in our own lives, but touch on the core of who we are. For a directing debut where he also shares a screenwriting credit with Aaron Stockard, Affleck becomes a director to watch. If intelligent genre productions like this will become a signature of his directing career, then Affleck might need to make room on the mantel for a directing Oscar next to his far-from-a-fluke screenwriting Oscar.