Review of Gone Baby Gone (2007) by Pavan R — 04 Sep 2012

I really hate Ben Affleck as an actor. So I was shocked to see his first directing gig actually result in one of the best movies I think I've ever seen. (And after his later efforts, maybe he's finally found his calling...).

I was just kind of stunned by this movie. It didn't save the good stuff for the end, there's some pretty riveting scenes in the first twenty minutes that hooked me for the rest. Probably the big star in this movie is Amy Ryan, who pulls a stellar performance out of nowhere as the white trash druggie mom of the little missing girl; she's fearless in portraying this woman who is weak, pathetic, despicable... and yet so undeniably real that it's hard to entirely hate her.

The biggest strength of the movie is its willingness to exist uncomfortably in moral ambiguity. A lesser, more timid movie would have tried to tell us how to evaluate the actions of the characters (especially in the last ten minutes, when all the twists finally resolve), and there were some alternate scenes on the DVD that did go that way, but ultimately Affleck chooses not to go that route, and even lets the camera linger motionless on the final image for far longer than one would expect, so the audience has time for all the ramifications of the resolution to sink in (painfully)... and it is perfection. Characters make their choices, the dice roll, the chips fall, and now all that is left is to pick up the pieces.

This is one of those movies that is better than the source material from which it's derived. Affleck and Stockard do a good job in removing any excess material from the story in order to get down to the core of the narrative, and that's what they focus on.