Unconvincing but watchable...

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2019)

Gone Baby Gone is a strange mishmash; it begins brilliantly, the acting is mostly superb, the detail convincing, dialogue great. Dennis Lehane wrote the novel it was based on and perhaps the sprks in the script originated there. But the denouement - or the entire last third of the film - didn't hack it. Maybe it worked more convincingly in the novel but it ran out of steam and seemed too contrived. This film is - dare I say it - entertaining and almost great in parts; but the whole doesn't make it. Ben Affleck's brother is a slightly better actor than his brother; but he is similarly 'dull' and he does not carry the movie as his character is required to do. His tough act in the bar didn't convince me. The film leaned heavily on better actors; Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan, Titus Welliver, and everybody else are outstanding enough to carry the less than watertight story. A cameo by Edi Gathegi almost steals the show for me; and Michael Kenneth Williams, who I seem to remember in The Wire?, is brilliant. But ultimately this film is not as convincing as Mystic River, but it is still Lehane enough to get me hooked.