A terrific 'thriller' that raises more questions than it answers

Rating: 10/10 (9 June 2008)

OK, so Ben Affleck won an Oscar, along with Matt Damon, for writing "Good Will Hunting", the controversy at the time being that they had a little help from the likes of William Goldman. He was also sexy, funny and even charming in "Chasing Amy" despite playing a misogynist pig. Then it all went wrong. Good looks notwithstanding, bad movies choices and an almost total lack of anything resembling charisma ensured that while Affleck was seldom out of the movie news, albeit for all the wrong reasons, his career was all but over. Until now, but this time Ben has stayed, perhaps wisely, behind the camera, casting instead his almost unnaturally talented younger brother Casey in the lead.
"Gone Baby Gone" is a terrific movie; ostensibly a thriller about the kidnapping of a young girl from a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, (its release in Britain held up until now because of supposed similarities with the Madeline McCann case), this brilliant film asks more questions than it answers, posing a number of moral and ethical dilemmas. This is a movie to ponder over and which you will take away from the cinema with you, (and no, I don't think there are any resemblances between this and the McCann case).
Adapted by Affleck and Aaron Stockard from a novel by Dennis Lehane who wrote "Mystic River", it shares with it the same blue-collar Boston milieu and which it captures to perfection. Indeed it seems to me a much more accurate representation than was Eastwood's film. Rather than borrowing from his mentors Affleck has learned from them and this is a remarkable assured directorial debut. (We shall over look the one about the lesbian wife and the meat-hook).
It is also terrifically well acted. Casey Affleck, so good in "The Assassination of Jesse James", is perfectly cast as the young Private Investigator hired by the child's aunt to head up the investigation, knowing, as she does, that many people in the locale will not co-operate with the police. It's a beautifully written part and Affleck plays it superbly. He is matched by Ed Harris as the policeman not beyond bending or breaking a few rules to get what he wants. The film's real revelation, however, is Amy Ryan as the child's drug-addicted mother. Ryan plays her unsympathetically and although her character isn't on the screen very often she remains crucial to the film's development making this as much a movie about the nature of parenting as it is a thriller. Ryan won almost every award going last year, only losing out on the Oscar. She's amazing but then so is the whole movie. You may feel by the end as if you've been kicked in the stomach. Yes, it really is that good.