Provides Thrills

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2014)

What Gone Baby Gone is is an intermittently competent urban detective thriller with some good performances and a startlingly authentic look at a side of Boston rarely if ever seen on screen. Affleck reportedly took the same approach that David Simon used with HBO series The Wire in casting extras and some peripheral characters, picking out locals who wouldn't have to fake their Southie accents, trashy clothes, poses and beaten down faces. Indeed, a couple of Wire regulars appear in Gone Baby Gone (Omar as a cop), and that show's idea that the real cops -- the best cops -- spend part of every day walking their Baltimore beat, building relationships, is also part of what makes local boy Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) an effective private detective in the tightly knit enclaves of Boston.