Affleck's Vengeance

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2011)

Ben Affleck must be kicking himself. I'm sure it passed through his mind when he was making particularly empty vehicles as an actor and turning in self-conscious performances as Daredevils and Dick heroes that he wasn't enriching the history of cinema and had somehow joined the Forces of Evil, conspiring against the wellbeing of humanity by cashing in on a watery culture of cinematic mediocrity. He knows that film at its best can make the world a better place – somehow. It is implicit in the script of Good Will Hunting. Then Hollywood came along and tried to tell him otherwise and he forgot, like those flawed heroes who become mired in just getting by everyday after their fall from grace. Well, consider Gone Baby Gone his vengeance. It is superb. Immensely detailed, textured and nuanced he uses his own brother Casey as his alter ego to confront a world mired in selfishness and deception. The Afflecks will attempt to do what is right, what is good, and yet! It is the "and yet..!" that makes this film so special even beyond the great performances of pretty much every actor in the show. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play Patrick and Angie, life partners as well as professional partners in their business of private detectives. They are hired by the relatives of a child who has been kidnapped from her drug-using irresponsible mother (Amy Ryan playing Helene McCready in one of those turns that is unfortunately so richly convincing you don't actually think she is acting). Patrick may be street wise but there is a youth and innocence to him that makes the viewer feel protective. Those hand-picked masters of gravitas, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris play 'the grown ups' as it were. Freeman is the police chief who has suffered a young daughter being murdered in the past and at first appears as a minor character in it all. Harris plays Remy Bressant, the seasoned cop working with colleague Nic Poole (John Ashton) obliged to share their findings with the young pair. The relationship proves to be mutually beneficial as they delve inside the shabby crime kingdom of Boston with its drug lynch pins, hustlers, thugs and users. From a Dennis Lehane novel the script by Affleck (Ben) and Aaron Stockard handsomely builds up the detail and complexity of the story. Affleck knows how to make a scene count and there are stings and zingers throughout this two hour movie that make each word and image essential and watchable. The writers also take a big chance with structure, chucking the (recently) time-honored three act system out the window, as the film is divided into two halves. It is a risk to take nowadays as audiences are so used to the set up, but it pays off because of the density of events and - that rare thing nowadays – real character development. At the heart is Casey Affleck's prickly boyish persona, both strong and brittle, a resolute and doubting crusader, vulnerable and untouchable, a sinner or a saint in the making.
While I'm reminded of those early Scorcese films that weave Catholic hope and guilt between urban conflict, Gone Baby Gone manages to produce a new level of sophistication. Scorcese heroes are iconic and distant. Affleck is within arms reach. This is a crime genre film that is reflective without forgetting the viewer, dealing with the lives of ordinary Americans as if they mattered, brimming with compassion, while still managing to be a cinematic ride of craft, invention and mature intelligence.
Yep, Affleck must be kicking himself for wasting so much time letting less capable people shape his offerings to film when all the while he should have been at the helm himself. I hope he has learned his lesson. Loved it.