Secrets, lies shake a community in 'Gone Baby Gone'

Here's a twist: a crime drama that relies on the story, not gratuitous gore, to leave viewers stunned.

By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
Published October 18, 2007

Gone Baby Gone
Grade: A
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan, John Ashton, Amy Madigan
Screenplay: Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
Rating: R; strong profanity, violence, child peril, drug content
Running time: 115 min.

Gone Baby Gone accomplishes two things I thought impossible: making child endangerment more than an exploitative movie device and showing Ben Affleck as a filmmaker who may fulfill his early potential after all.

This is a terrific crime drama, crackling with streetwise suspense, unique characters and diabolical turns. The movie is a prime example of why I prefer not to read books before they become films, to preserve the doubt about what happens next.

But Dennis Lehane's novel Gone, Baby, Gone will be on my nightstand soon.

Affleck and co-writer Aaron Stockard present Lehane's story and its themes with the respect that made Clint Eastwood's Mystic River one of 2003's best movies. In some respects, Gone Baby Gone is even better.

The working-class Boston neighborhood intrigue of Mystic River worked for viewers who had lived there or who stuck with Eastwood's neo-Shakespearean scheme.

Unlike Eastwood, Affleck hails from that life, which makes his equally authentic depiction feel less mannered.

Gone Baby Gone also has an easier suspense hook: the kidnapping and possible murder of children that makes watching the nightly news a sickening experience.

Three-year-old Amanda McCready is missing when Affleck's movie begins, in a neighborhood so tight-knit that anyone can be a suspect. Amanda's anguished grandmother Amy Madigan believes the only chance to find the child is through clues from criminals who don't talk to the police.

Enter the private eyes Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), who have the shady connections but perhaps not the courage for such a case. How refreshing to see gumshoes preferring to back away from conflict, who appear nervous about drawing guns.

Patrick and Angie poke around dive bars and drug dens, searching with a sense of humanity - even in violent times. They make this more than a missing person case. They are our sharp eyes and jangled nerves, and the actors quietly, perfectly, serve as doubtful heroes.

The pair seems overmatched in toughness by detective Remy Bressant (an excellent Ed Harris), who doesn't like sharing his information as the law demands. His official investigation, and the duo's unofficial one, collide and cooperate until a gut-shot plot twist sends Gone Baby Gone into an entirely unexpected direction. My heart leaped when it happened, and I dug in for an insidious slide into darkness and distrust.

You won't get any more plot details than that from me. Anyone who spoils Gone Baby Gone deserves its villains' fate, and even that won't be what you expect - unless you've read Lehane's book.

Instead, let us praise the filmmakers for dealing with such an emotional topic with honesty and grim sensitivity. Affleck doesn't dote on grisly imagery or shameful details; the aftermath of such horror on a community is shocking enough.

Even good guys don't come out clean.

Gone Baby Gone is a lurid morality tale, penned by a master of his craft and filmed by another on his way.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com. Read his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 12:54:11]