Gone Baby Gone

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March 10, 2013 by Mithil

People are in awe of Ben Affleck these days with his astronomical rise to another level of stardom and his charming ways of capturing those momentous images on camera. Frankly speaking I don’t get the hoopla around ‘Argo’, I didn’t see much into it and my dubiousness is not because of the pro American sentiments obvious in the movie. I will talk more about it when I write about that movie, another day. I enjoyed watching The Town because of it’s spunkiness. But the movie that triumphs over these newly featured ones is his directorial debut ‘Gone Baby Gone’.

When 4 yr old Amanda McCready goes missing, the whole of neighbourhood is in shock. The girls has no father and her mother is drug addict, her aunt therefore decides to hire detectives to find her abducted/missing daughter. The detectives, Patrick and Angie amateurs in their profession whole heartedly works alongside the reluctant police,  whose 70 hrs of prior investigation is effectively a wild goose chase. Patrick and Angie with their neighbourhood contacts unearth names and things that were of no cops luxury. They with Policeman Remy and Nick gets closer to the abductor, but wait there is a twist coming and maybe another later  and definitely one at the climax.

I know I have been sketchy with my plot description but hey it’s tedious to unravel such complex plot. I do like to make confession that I have made an attempt to see this before but I couldn’t, I found it slow pace and Casey Affleck that to be replica of James Franco in that Oscar ceremony. But what a imbecile I was to ignore such work of pure awe. The movie starts with a beautiful voice over by Casey Affleck then moves over to the main story. It’s has Boston city named all over it, in it’s wide shots, in it’s short glimpses and in it’s people. As the detectives makes conversation with characters played by Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, there is a tarantino-ish feel to it albeit not with the devilish music background. Casey Affleck character is developed with the morals and chauvinism of a do-gooder. He rarely shows fear in his eyes and his persona is very enigmatic.

I found a lot scenes in this movie that were worth remembering but I won’t mention those because I might have to sound spoiler alert. There are moments of disgust not because there is blood or violence(hardly) but the kind of people shown and how they live their life. As the secrets box keeps opening, there are things that come to fore, characters get more intense, they develop backstory and this whole whirlpool of characters and their stories boils down to questionable climax. I know some people might be left unsatisfied with the ending, but what could he do. He made a decision that nobody agreed on, he made it by himself he lost everything and there is no chance he could go back on it. It’s against him. By the way you get a ominous feeling at the start when Angie asks Patrick if their is a good life and if this case can change anything worse about it.

Performance wise everybody is top notch, Casey Affleck holds that grip and control over his character that I have seen rarely. Michelle Monaghan is little subdued and I thought like the makers wanted her to have more but it didn’t permit. Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris  with their ferocious performance are like fuel to this movie. Every now then the sparks fly when they staple those dialogues. Titus Welliver, Amy Ryan and others were superb throughout their acts. A pat on the back of Ben Affleck, rightfully his best movie for me. Back ground music keeps up with the pace of the story.

A must watch for those who like the movies with mind inducing thoughts and questioning morals. A must watch for everyone.

7.8/10
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