Ben Affleck’s (Argo, The Town) Gone Baby Gone is a classic film if you watch it once. But then comes the age-old question, “Does a movie stand the test of time?” And the answer to the question for this film is “I think so.” By this, I’m referring to the fact that if you watched it today for the first time, you would likely feel the same sentiments I felt on my first watch. You would think that it is an instant gem. But there are better movies for repeat viewings. Some films are great the second, third, and fourth time around. Gone Baby Gone is not one of those films. It’s a bit frustrating on repeat viewings. But I will ignore my most recent viewing of this film and write it from the standpoint that I had just seen it for the first time because that is the review it deserves.

Set in present-day Dorchester, a working-class neighborhood of Boston where everyone knows everyone and generations of families continue to live on the same blocks, 31-year-old private detective Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Triple 9) lives in the same vicinity that he grew up in. He lives with his lover and business partner, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan – Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Source Code). The duo specializes in missing person cases. When they are approached by Lionel (Titus Welliver – Argo, The Town) and Bea (Amy Madigan – Pollock, The Laramie Project) to help enhance the investigation of the disappearance of their four-year-old niece Amanda as they don’t A) they don’t believe the Boston Police Department is doing enough and B) the duo can get answers that the police department might not be able to.

They know it’s a case they have to accept even though the Boston Police Department is already aware of the abduction and is on the lookout. It’s a well-known fact that the return of an abducted child decreases with each passing hour, let alone each passing day, so urgency is a must. In addition, the Boston Police Department takes child abduction cases to heart because the daughter of police chief Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman – Seven, The Shawshank Redemption) had been abducted and eventually murdered years earlier.

Despite Amanda’s case being outside what traditionally Patrick and Angie investigate (they usually track deadbeats and lowlifes), Lionel and Bea hope that Patrick’s knowledge of the neighborhood and its people will help, especially in getting the neighborhood people to open up, knowing that these same people might be willing to talk to Patrick and Angie. In contrast, they might not be willing to speak with the police. It’s important to note that Amanda’s mother, Helene (Amy Ryan – Beautiful Boy, Dan in Real Life), isn’t the most exemplary of parents. While she is not explicitly blamed for negligence or anything like that revolving around her daughter’s disappearance, we know that she is a drug runner and has been involved in the theft of drug money. Many, including Patrick and Angie, believe that she has something to do with the abduction.

What follows is a wild goose change that involves so many intriguing players (many who have their own agenda and many who do not) that it isn’t even worth mentioning them in this review. Patrick and Angie are just your basic private investigators who don’t usually even carry guns. Yet, by saying yes to a case that they couldn’t say no to, they are now caught up in a case that is far beyond their scope. Yet how do you just quit? In the case of Patrick and Angie, you don’t. Patrick and Angie are the perfect pair, with their youth and inexperience being both their best asset and their most significant liability. Ben Affleck crafts a story that looks at not just the crossing of T’s and dotting of I’s of police work but the ethical dilemmas that each individual and each team must go through. There are so many twists and turns along the way that it’s a wonder that Patrick and Angie are the same characters at the start of the film as they are at the end, but then again, maybe they are entirely different. It’s for you to decide.

If you can predict all the detours that take us from the starting line to the finish, you did better than me. I remember watching in awe, wondering just what the fate of young Amanda might be. I did not think about how these two characters were evolving and how the decisions they made along the way could affect them as investigators, as partners, as lovers, and as individuals. It’s a fantastic character study of a handful of characters that a novice like Ben Affleck shouldn’t have been able to achieve in his directorial debut. Yet, he showed the same mastery that someone like Clint Eastwood could. And when you think the film has reached its climax and just minutes before its end, Affleck takes us deeper into the ramifications of a decision that forever changes some characters’ lives. Again, it’s a mastery that a first-time director just shouldn’t be able to possess yet.

If you have yet to see it, watch Gone Baby Gone.

Plot 10/10
Character Development 10/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 9/10
Directing 10/10
Cinematography 9/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 9.5/10
92.5%

A-

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