Gone Baby Gone

Rating: Null/10 (16 April 2009)

Ben Affleck's assured debut behind the camera is an extraordinary achievement by anyone's standards, let alone a first-timer.
It's as authentic a depiction of a city as you could want. The accents, the cast and extras, the locations - everything comes together beautifully to form a complete picture. It doesn't feel researched or studied, it feels like it was made by people with a great affinity for the area, and it was.
It's a shame that at the end of a film marked by such understated realism and naturalism the final twist - the one set on a front lawn - goes several steps too far and is so outside the realms of credibility it shocks more due to the disappointment rather than the surprise. I will say that the ensuing moral dilemma it creates is hugely satisfying though, so the oh-boy-that's-stupid feeling is short-lived.
It's the one single false note in an otherwise outstanding film, and I dare say that the writers and Casey Affleck have given us - in Patrick Kenzie - one of the screen's great heroes. I haven't read the Dennis Lehane novel it's based on, but on screen at least it's no exaggeration to say that Patrick Kenzie is an Atticus Finch for the new millennium. He's the classic Average Joe thrown into something much bigger and important than he, and while he's aggressive and uncouth, he also shows remarkable bravery both physically and emotionally. He'll have to make several tough decisions and sacrifices before the credits roll and it will ultimately cost him everything except his honour and his unerring sense of right and wrong. And Casey Affleck's performance is just stunning. Physically slight yet imposing and occasionally even frightening. Tender and loving, ruthless and callous, yet always noble and dignified.
The mystery is dense and gripping, the dialogue throughout sharp and snappy. And at the risk of sounding too hyperbolic "Annabel" should go down as one of the all-time great final lines in cinema history.