Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Movie Review by Zachary Parker

It would be easy to point and laugh at Ben Affleck for his past acting or choice of projects, but easy does not equate right, especially considering how we have now begun to see a more mature star. With his recent performance in Hollywoodland (2006), Affleck delved into the character of George Reeves, showing himself as insecure in his typical overconfidence and yet confident with that insecurity.

This self-awareness seems to guide Affleck’s hand in his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, as he eagerly points to the people of Boston. He’s content to rely on the strength of human weakness as the basis for a film about not just the missing child, Amanda McCready, but the missing or misguided conscience of those involved.

The film’s strength is aided by solid performances by Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro respectively. Angie lives with Patrick, a private investigator, as his “associate” who originally does not want to take on the responsibility of finding Amanda.

However, the little girl’s aunt Beatrice begs Patrick to take the case. Her husband, Lionel, played by Titus Welliver, one of the film’s most understated performances, also pleads for help while breaking in between his wife and his sister, Amanda’s mother, Helene.

Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) of the Boston police discourages the family from hiring Patrick, but reluctantly agrees to assist Patrick’s investigation, assigning Detective Remy Bressant and his partner.

The former is played by Ed Harris with an impatient, all or nothing attitude that comes on very strong in contrast to Casey Affleck’s restrained intensity. With Detective Bressant, Helene leads Patrick and Angie to bags of cash, druglords, and pedophiles. 

                After a startling meeting and then a dark decision in a bloody ordeal, Patrick finds himself in new territory where, as he explains in a voiceover narration during the film’s beginning few minutes of close-ups, he must be as “wise as serpents.”

    At this point, we realize the whole film is a close-up of Patrick, of the choices faced by an ordinary man when struggling with “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

In this sense, the film’s multifaceted title signifies not just the meaning of lost children or lost innocence, but also lost relationships and lost integrity, all of which provoke characters to recede in shame.

“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for such belongs the kingdom of God,” Christ said. In a way, the whole film is about what we do or don’t do for children.

In the end, the film makes it clear that we are not in any position to decide how to direct the lives of children. Instead, we live up to Christ’s standard by restoring what is broken since it is not our job to preempt any future evil as if we could stop it, or even see it.

            With Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck gives us a very fine film: it refuses to be taken hostage by cheap gags, blood spillage, preachy anecdotes, or stereotypical cops and bad guys.

Affleck does not bend over believability or cheapen the film as a conventional mystery thriller for an easy way in, but thoroughly explores a man’s experience with dishonesty and good intentions.

The film may easily corner us with disturbing manifestations of the “evil in the world,” but it unties our minds by encouraging a mature response both selfless in intent and honestly executed. If character-driven urban mysteries appeal to you, then hurry to the theater before this baby’s gone.