Definitely a must see

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2007)

Ben Affleck's directorial debut came out strong, as Gone Baby Gone reproduced the same sort of gut wrenching drama seen in Mystic River. Both movies were adapted from books by Dennis Lehane.
The movie plays like a morality tale seen through the eyes of Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), who plays a private detective in a run down Boston neighborhood. When Kenzie is asked to look into a case of a missing local girl, he and his partner/girlfriend Angie (played by Michelle Mongahan) soon discover the grim realities and horrors associated with child kidnappings. Morgan Freeman plays a police detective who heads the Boston department responsible for discovering missing persons, and Ed Harris is one of the cops assigned to the case.
Although it seems that Patrick and Angela are confronted with moral quandaries just about every five minutes, the movie is not overly preachy, and does not endorse any particular ideology or belief system. Indeed it's very easy to sympathize with many of the arguments made in the movie, including the final one made by Morgan Freeman, which is somewhat of a twist although not quite as much as other reviews have made it out to be. The movie ran for just under two hours, though it sure felt longer due to some of the suspense. There are about three extremely climactic scenes in the movie, which make for some great film making but also for a good bit of downtime to recover and prepare for the next one.
Casey Affleck, who's probably better known for his comedic performances, did a great job as the main character. Although if you only know him from elsewhere, it may be hard to adjust. Morgan Freeman was, as usual, great. And Ed Harris and John Ashton (famous for his role as Detective Taggart in Beverly Hills Cop) were wonderful as a good cop/bad cop team.
Overall, the movie was great. But before we crown Ben Affleck as a new Spielberg, it'd be best to see him do a few more movies first. Remember he was also great in Good Will Hunting, and then went on to box office hell with Pearl Harbor, Gigli, Jersey Girl, Paycheck, the list goes on and on.