CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 10/19/07

Honestly Good

By elizabeth rivera

Lehane's crime drama is adapted for the screen by Aaron Stockard and Ben Affleck. In his directorial debut, Affleck brings to life the tough streets of Boston and tells the story of a young girl's kidnapping and the web of lies behind it that no one expected to find and no one knows what to do with.

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
Adapted from the novel by Dennis Lehane

One night Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) puts her four-year-old daughter Amanda (Madeline O'Brien) to bed, goes across the street to chat with her neighbor, and comes back to find her child gone. Desperate to find the little girl, the McCready family hires two local detectives, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to help with the investigation. What they find is not what they expected: a tangled web of lies implicating people they never suspected and no answers as to how to proceed next. Not just a twist-filled crime drama, Gone Baby Gone rises above the label of crime thriller by asking what is truly right and leaving it to the audience to supply an answer for themselves.

The film begins quietly, shots of the Dorchester Boston neighborhood with a voiceover by Kenzie, and while it soon progresses to action and tough interactions between Boston lowlifes and police officers, the movie never becomes gimmicky. There is no fluff, no overly elaborate action sequences or special effects, because the story itself is thrilling enough. What seems like a run-of-the-mill child abduction is quickly complicated as Kenzie finds more and more information that doesn't lead where it's supposed to and is drawn into the dangerous realms of drug-dealers, ex-cons, and child abusers. Just when he and the Boston police think they've found Amanda, she slips through their fingers and they all walk away changed by the tragedy but ready to put it in the past. Everyone except Kenzie, who can't let the case go and continues looking for the truth, which he ultimately wishes he didn't know about.

Not only thrilling in its unexpected plot twists, Gone Baby Gone also asks the serious question of what is ethical and moral in an immoral world, forcing Kenzie to make a decision that will irrevocably change his life and the lives of those around him. The movie asks what is in the best interest of the child, and is that the same thing as what is right? Sadly, the answers to those questions often conflict. Kenize faces a major moral dilemma and chooses with grace, but also raw human honesty, what he sees as right, despite the consequences it has for him. The movie never judges Kenzie's decision as right or wrong, but rather, in one of the most haunting final scenes of the year, asks the audience to judge for themselves.

Near perfect as a film, Gone Baby Gone embodies almost all the aspects of great screenwriting: a great plot, real characters, well-paced, poignant, statement making. It falters only in one point: Angie Gennaro. While she does provide some motivation and conflict as Kenzie's lover, the fact that she is his detective partner is practically redundant. She brings nothing to the case, finds no leads, deduces nothing. Aside from a pretty face, she brings nothing to the investigation and, in fact, seems more of a liability then a help to Kenzie. Once again, instead of bringing a smart, strong female character to the screen, we find here a weak, pointless sidekick who doesn't progress or grow in any way, existing only to motivate her lover to action.

Gone Baby Gone falls under the crime drama label but is so much more than that. The film takes the viewer into the heart-breaking world of child abduction, showing the horror faced by the family, the frustration experienced by the police, and the tangled underworld that produces these crimes. It also touches on the depths of human love and rationality, and asks timeless questions such as whether people can change, what is right, and what is truth, finally leaving the answering these questions to the audience, resulting in a film that is as exciting as it is poignant.

Gone Baby Gone
Miramax
Rated R; 114 min.

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Elizabeth Rivera is a freelance writer (e.g. poor person) who lives in Los Angeles. She can usually be found roaming the streets of the greater L.A. area looking for story material and general mischief.

Gone Baby Gone courtesy Miramax

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