Glimmers of Light

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2008)

Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan deliver unbelievable performances in "Gone Baby Gone," but unfortunately cannot fully redeem the film. The problems with "Gone Baby Gone" are for the most part products of Ben Affleck as director and Lehaine as the "brainchild" of the story (the film is adapted from his novel of the same name).
Ben Affleck is obsessed with giving the viewers agritty vision of Boston, the setting of the film, and he goes too far. Instead of grittiness, Affleck's focus on ugly people doing ugly things both on the streets and in the story itself results in-well-ugliness. The city has no glimmers of beauty in this film. Instead of shooting for ugliness outside the main story, Affleck could have shot for beauty and the typical outsider-s view of Boston. This would have allowed him to then, through the story, show the uglier side of the same city. The effect would have been marvelous instead of phony, but alas. Affleck makes other mistakes as well. He and his cinematographer shoot too many scenes in a sort of curious darkness. The most effective scenes in the film are shot in the light of day, and they come mostly at the powerful conclusion. The darkness-based scenes feel manipulative and hopeless.
Still, Affleck's direction is not all bad. He draws forth great performances from his brother and Michelle Monaghan as the cop principles and from Amy Ryan as a drug-abusing "bad mother." Morgan Freeman's flat performance and Ed Harris's just-solid performance come about completely as a result of the source material.
Lehaine has done great work before, but the plot of this novel/film is too twisted and too reliant on sketchy coincidences. Only the more simple cop-movie beginning and the fantastic ending ring true. In fact, the middle section, which deals with true colors and pedophiles, is repulsive and contrived. The film includes a plot twist that is completely unnecessary and actually harmful.
While even the convoluted patty of this film-sandwich has some good moments, the film is ultimately derailed. Still, Casey Affleck is a great actor and puts on a good show throughout, whenever the material allows.