Food for thought

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2010)

Gone Baby Gone caught me by surprise.
I was expecting it to be a good film. Everything I had read said so, but I was late coming to it: its exposure in the UK was limited and compromised by comparison with the Maddie McCann child abduction case. So I knew little about it other than that it was about a child abduction, directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey.
Well, yes, it is indeed good. It is a gripping drama which keeps you guessing all the way through (I hadn't known, but wasn't surprised, to see that it was based on a book by Dennis Lehane, who wrote Shutter Island). And, on the level of a rather dispiriting, rather seedy crime drama, it succeeded admirably.
Then the last fifteen minutes or so arrived, and everything changed. Suddenly this detective story, with its unexpected twists and turns, became something very much deeper, addressing the fundamental issue of whether morality is, or should be, black or white. And it is this element of the movie which will stay with me well beyond the usual afterlife of a movie.
In passing, I should mention that the cast are all excellent (particularly Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan and Amy Madigan), and Ben Affleck does a remarkable job on his first movie as director.