Brothers Affleck turn in sturdy film with ‘Gone Baby Gone’
By Ben Saylor
Insights
Published Oct. 24, 2007

In all the shadows and moral murk of Ben Affleck’s directorial debut, one thing shines through bright and clear: Casey Affleck is having one heck of a year.

The younger Affleck brother gives a dark, brooding performance in “Gone Baby Gone,” an adaptation of the novel by Dennis Lehane. His turn as Boston private eye Patrick Kenzie, while not on the same level as his mesmerizing performance as Robert Ford in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” is still striking and effective.

Kenzie, along with his girlfriend and partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, “The Heartbreak Kid”), are called in to assist on a missing person’s case. Four-year-old Amanda McCready was apparently snatched out of the apartment she lives in with her junkie mother Helene (Amy Ryan). Police Captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) allows the pair to tag along with Detectives Bressant (Ed Harris) and Poole (John Ashton). Thus begins an increasingly tangled and sordid web of deceptions, lies, pedophilia and corruption.

Ben Affleck, after reasserting himself as an actor last year with his excellent portrayal of TV Superman George Reeves in “Hollywoodland” in addition to putting in a forgettable cameo in “Smokin’ Aces”), steps behind the camera for “Gone,” and the results, while certainly nothing spectacular, do show promise. Affleck has a knack for atmosphere (although it’s not like the Beantown native is filming an area he’s unfamiliar with), and ace cinematographer John Toll masterfully paints the film in muted colors and murky shadows.

Affleck’s direction is also sturdy; this is a much more even film, acting-wise, than Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” (also based on a Dennis Lehane Boston-area mystery). Yes, emotions occasionally come to a boil, but when they do it generally feels appropriate and not over the top (Sean Penn in “Mystic River,” anyone?).

Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play private investigators trying to find a 4-year-old girl in "Gone Baby Gone."

Of course, it helps that Affleck has such a solid leading man in his little brother, but the supporting cast is fine as well. Harris is very good as the very intense Bressant, and Monaghan is a welcome presence in any film (as she proved in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”). Freeman, however, while not bad exactly, doesn’t seem quite right for his role, although that may be why Affleck put him in the film (That makes more sense once you’ve seen the movie).

It is Ryan, however, as an extremely unsympathetic mother, who really stands out amongst the supporting players. Only sometimes resorting to histrionics, Ryan turns Helene into a fairly complex character, not a caricature. This is critical, because the audience’s perception of her character is crucial to making the film’s haunting conclusion work as well as it does.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with the film lies within the source material (Affleck adapted the novel with Aaron Stockard). I’ve never read the book, but the plot of the film of “Gone Baby Gone” is just too twisty and contrivance-ridden for my tastes. We’re asked to swallow an awful lot with this movie, and the more the plot ties itself in knots, the less involved I became with the film. The one bright spot is that there isn’t a drawn-out, guns-blazing bloodbath at the conclusion. Instead, Affleck poses Kenzie (and the audience) with an interesting moral dilemma, one whose consequences affect not only Kenzie, but just about every other character in the movie.

With “Gone Baby Gone,” Affleck the elder has proved he can direct, and Affleck the younger has shown that he has the acting chops to carry a movie. Here’s hoping that for the former Affleck’s next directing gig, he’ll pick a story with some real meat to it.