Great debut

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2008)

On the surface, Gone Baby Gone, is a crime thriller about a child kidnapped from a cocaine addicted mother and the private investigator recruited to find her. Beyond that though, the plot only continues to get thicker every step of the way through the film.
Upon hearing of this movie I was slightly intrigued, mostly because of the Oscar nomination attached to Amy Ryan who I had never heard of. After watching it though, I was very pleasantly surprised. The movie was considerably well made, a great start for Ben Affleck's directorial career. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehan and adapted by Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone starts out with a deceivingly simple plot and expands and grows with great intensity. Simply put, the story is wonderfully written.
There is an impressive mix of character dynamics in the movie. In other words, certain characters relations to each other greatly facilitate a complex and interesting story. Along with its fine plot, Gone Baby Gone has a phenomenal cast and they help to display these dynamics excellently. On top of Amy Ryan's Oscar nominated role (which is quite deserved I think), Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, and Morgan freeman deliver splendid performances as well. While the performances are what we should expect of actors with the experience of the latter two, Casey Affleck is deservedly building an impressive resume too. In keeping with a good plot, deeper messages in the story very thought provoking. In some senses, it displays the traditional dilemma of "do the ends justify the means" but does so in a way that makes it too hard to simply take one side or the other.
An outstanding debut for Ben Affleck: the director. Thanks to an extremely well written book and Ben Affleck's directorial talent Gone Baby Gone is a great movie and I definitely recommend it to those looking for a deep, edgy drama.