Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone is a well-acted and well-put-together mystery that serves as an impressive debut for director Ben Affleck, who elicits uniformly excellent performances from his cast, and avoids the temptation to dumb-down the story’s twisted plot.

Casey Affleck shines as the lead. He plays a small-time private detective in Boston investigating the widely publicized disappearance of a little girl.

His measured performance as a morally tested everyman carries the film, and every detail, from his dialog to his body language is absolutely believable. Supporting his is a stellar cast including big names Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, but it’s lesser known Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, and Titus Welliver who are truly spectacular as a dysfunctional white-trash family.

The adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel by Affleck and Aaron Stockard is a rarity. First, it does a great job of laying out the clues without telegraphing their meaning. This keeps the audience guessing, while avoiding the dreaded dues ex machina. Second, their script embraces the novel’s moral ambiguity by refusing to answer the many ethical questions the story raises. This in turn forces the audience to consider the issues for themselves, thus lending the film a significant emotional weight.

Indeed, Affleck’s only shortfall lies in his decision to include numerous shots of Boston streets and cityscapes as bridges between his scenes. While many good directors utilize this technique to establish atmosphere, truly great directors eschew it for more efficient means.