Gone Baby Gone (Dvd) - Both

I have picked this movie up from Blockbuster at least two times. Jennifer and I could never bring ourselves to watch it. I’m not really sure why, but I think it has to do with the same magical force that does not allow us to watch all of our tivoed episodes of Law & Order. I think you just have to be in the mood for a crime drama.

The remaining paragraphs contain major spoilers so don’t read it if you don’t want the ending or the plot revealed, but then go watch it. It is certainly worth the four dollar rental charge.

Gone Baby Gone is a tale told in two acts. The separation from each act is so clean that it is almost two distinct tales. Kenzie (Casey Affleck) is a straitlaced private detective in a suburb of Boston, Mass. He is hired by the aunt of a young girl who has been kidnapped. The mother of the girl, the deservedly Oscars nominated Amy Ryan, replays her view of the kidnapping. This tale involves child negligence and indifference to the girls well being, she is presented as a wholly unfit mother. While pursuing the kidnapped child Kenzie joins forces with the detective on the case, Remy (Ed Harris). The two uncover a drug trafficking ring which the young girl’s mother seems tied to and they attempt to retrieve the girl. This plan goes sour and the first act ends with the victims death. As the second act progresses it slowly is revealed that Remy, the detective on the case, and the Uncle of the girl, played the by fabulously mustached Titus Welliver, are somehow tied to the kidnapping and the act of the victims botched retrieval was a lie. The little girl is still alive – hidden from the public. This kidnapping was never a drug-related act but an uncle’s act of salvation for the young girl. The uncle believes that the child would be better off outside of the mother’s reach. These details give the audience a dilemma and as Affleck’s character draws closer to the girls location the audience is seemingly forced to make a choice. Would you want a child to be reunited with a mother who barely wants her and who’s negligence has already put the child’s life at risk, or would you want the child to be raised by absolute stranger’s albeit well meaning absolute strangers? The obvious answer for the viewer, in my opinion, is to allow the girl to remain kidnapped and leave her alone. Affleck’s character cannot seem to allow this to happen though. Previously in the film Affleck’s character is given the chance to kill a child molester after stumbling into his den of iniquity and he takes his opportunity. The audience and the cops praise his character for performing this act of pesticide. However, Affleck’s character hates himself for this act. He feels he is morally repugnant for his impetus. And as the conundrum of leaving the girl be or reuniting her with her mother is presented he chooses the latter. Is this the morally correct choice? It certainly is the legally correct choice. And this is the brilliance of this film. After it ended I turned to Jennie and we discussed our particular views on the outcomes, did the child molester deserve death, should Affleck leave the girl with the well meaning family?

This being Ben Affleck’s first successful venture into film’s in a while it seems his course is laid out for him. He is an impressive director with a surefooted feel for Boston and its people. His script wasn’t dumbed down and provoked genuine discussion after the film.

8 out of 10: a well made crime drama that elicits a response. Ben Affleck should keep his seat behind the camera.