Gone Baby Gone: The Affleck Duet review

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Ben Affleck burst onto the scene when he, along with Matt Damon won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Since then, their careers as writers have been put on hold, perhaps for more financially rewarding careers as actors. But this is a comeback of sorts for Affleck who not only co-writes but also makes an auspicious debut as a director. The material for the film comes from a book by Dennis Lehane who also was the author behind Mystic River.

Mystic River had a dark, dank plot set in Boston, GBG is quite similar. It's about the kidnapping of a cherubic child and the ensuing hunt for it. Along the way, skeletons tumble out of the closet and as the tag line of the film goes, ‘˜Hope Begins Where The Secrets End'.

The film begins with random shots of a typical Boston neighborhood. You immediately get the feeling that the place is a melting pot of cultures with the populace ranging from drug dealers to small time crooks, from regular office going guys to unemployed bench warmers. After the titles have rolled, the scene shifts to a news story about the kidnapping and the feeling that you get is that the guilty could have been any one of the random characters you have just witnessed. Thus from the first scene itself, Affleck keeps you involved with the movie. The plot unfolds with the right pacing, giving you just about enough time to mull about it before it reveals itself.

Most thrillers loose their edge because they do not account for the viewer's intelligence. Everytime there is something to be guessed, the viewer racks his brain trying to get there before the movie does. If he does that without much effort, he is dejected, and if it turns out to be something unguessable, he feels he has been led on a wild goose chase. GBG strikes the right balance between the two - its all out there, you only have to stay with the detective to piece it all together.

Baby-faced Casey Affleck delivers a mature performance as the detective. He looks the type who was made to act in American Pie movies. The Ocean's series is maybe as far he can go. But with The Assassination of Jesse James... and now GBG he ought the rank as one of the most promising of young actors. Ed Harris is impressive as usual as the cop who likes to take matters in to his own hands. Morgan Freeman's role as the head of the Crimes Against Children department is too brief to make an impact. But perhaps the most challenging role is that of Amy Ryan. She is the drug addict mother of the kidnapped child whose initial reluctance to co-operate with the search raises more questions than it answers. Going against the stereotype of wailing, grief-stricken mothers, she plays her character with a slight bit of edginess. You don't immediately take a shine to her much to your own surprise.

The feeblest character amongst all is the female lead played by Michelle Monaghan, due to no fault of hers. It is difficult to put in a heroine in a detective thriller unless she is integral to the plot. Yet filmmakers force her in somewhere, sometimes as the wife of the detective who is running a parallel war to salvage his marriage, or as the victim who tries desperately to tug at your heartstrings or sometimes as the last few reels reveal, the culprit herself. Monaghan plays the live-in associate of Casey who more often than not, simply tags along at investigations. But since the film is based on one book which is part of a series which features these two characters in the lead, it is understandably difficult to simply keep her out.

GBG has scenes of extreme violence is never exploitive about it. Yet, let the squeamish be warned. This isn't your regular Jason Bourne. The title of the film might suggest that it's a light hearted, possibly musical, entertainer. The truth as you shall discover is quite different.
P.S. - Rent the DVD but do not look at the idiotic chapter index on the inside sleeve. It gives the suspense away.

Director: Ben Affleck

[rating:4]