Gone Baby Gone

Year of Release: 2007
Director: Ben Affleck
Genre: Crime Drama



Adrian:

If not for Casey Affleck’s narration, the opening minutes of Gone Baby Gone could easily be mistaken for documentary footage shot in Boston. Director Ben Affleck did, in fact, take a film crew on location into the poverty-stricken neighborhoods that the story inhabits, casting non-professional locals as extras and for walk on roles, and the resulting authenticity is what gives the film its power. Indeed, Ben Affleck and his brother Casey (who stars here as Patrick Kenzie, an inexperienced private detective hired to help find a missing child) grew up in these same neighborhoods, and they infuse the dialogue (whether scripted by co-writer Ben or improvised by Casey, as much of it undoubtedly was), as well as each individual scene, with pitch perfect rhythm and a raw intensity that not only propels the story forward, but makes the viewer feel as though they are eavesdropping on actual conversations, as opposed to watching talented actors recite lines. So great in particular is Casey Affleck’s contribution that on repeated viewings it becomes apparent how easy his role would have been to overplay, but instead, what could have ended up playing like an over-the-top audition reel for the academy awards became the story of a real person, a story that immediately engrosses the viewer, whether watching it for the first time or engaging in repeated viewings.

However, many details which seem insignificant on first viewing acquire a great deal of importance by the end of the film, especially the opening narration by Casey Affleck. In it, he describes his neighborhood, and in doing so, effectively summarizes his outlook on life and morality- but screenwriters Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard never imply that this is actually what he is doing, and Casey Affleck never telegraphs his emotions for the benefit of the audience. In fact, viewers will be unaware of the key importance of this opening narration until the end of the film. Naturally, since all good detective stories involve some kind of moral dilemma, Patrick Kenzie will have to seriously question his outlook on good and evil at some point during the film, and this is a film that is all about how a person can possibly do the right thing in a world that is basically evil. But that has to do with the plot, and to describe an unpredictable, labyrinthine, and brilliantly executed story such as this in much detail would be a huge disservice to potential viewers.

The cast, however, does deserve mention. Director Ben Affleck, instead of getting as much star power as possible behind his film, chose to cast the main and much of the supporting cast (Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Morgan Freeman) from among the best character actors the industry has to offer, and, going off of Affleck and Stockard’s script, which gives them plenty to work with, they all shine in their respective roles. Too often filmmakers worry about writing and casting one or two key roles, completely ignoring the supporting players, which leads to a great deal of grandstanding by the stars in an effort to distract the audience from what is going on around them. In Gone Baby Gone, the two lead actors can and do passively observe events some of the time, which not only allows the supporting actors to enhance the audience’s understanding of both the story and the world around them, but also to show that there is a world these lead characters inhabit, and lives that they are living outside of the action shown onscreen.

All of the supporting and bit roles - some professional actors, many local Bostonians with no acting experience whatsoever – ring true and none of the actors (professionals or amateurs) utter a single syllable that isn’t completely believable. If the film’s colorful array of characters contains a single weak link (and it does), it is the partner/lover of Patrick Kenzie, Angie Genarro. This is not, however, the fault of actress Michelle Monaghan, who proves here that she is more than capable of handling her character. The problem is that there is hardly a character to play. Ben Affleck has stated that in the process of adapting the novel upon which the film is based, if he hadn’t trimmed some of the source material (which is over 400 pages), the film would have lasted seven hours. Because of this he decided to remove both a sub-plot about a gang war, which would have distracted from the important elements of the story anyway, and scenes that developed the character of Angie Genarro, which would have given the film the added depth needed to make it truly great. In the film, the enigmatic Genarro exists only to provide additional sources of conflict for Patrick Kenzie and to observe the film’s events with equal parts confusion and sadness. But despite this, Monaghan overcomes the script’s lack of development to make Angie Genarro believable, which prevents the audience from being distracted from the overall story.

Stylistically, first time director Ben Affleck displays more confidence than most filmmakers working today, infusing very few stylistic flourishes into the film, and instead employing a combination of standard (but effective) camerawork and gritty, handheld, documentary-style shots (it is to his credit that he does not overuse the latter, but rather unleashes them at deliberate points throughout the film). Affleck does not use cinematic tricks to enhance scenes, but rather, has the confidence to allow the script and the actors to tell the story uninterrupted. The only aspect of the film which sometimes distracts from the action onscreen is the musical score, which works effectively with some scenes, but disrupts other moments in the film when composer Harry Gregson-Williams goes too far over the top.

In terms of Gone Baby Gone’s technical aspects, the few lighting and editing tricks Affleck employs blend in with the scene they are a part of so seamlessly that they are virtually undetectable. The only glimpse of style made overtly clear to the audience comes midway into the film when Patrick Kenzie’s character looks into a pane of glass in a hospital hallway and sees himself reflected, through careful lighting, as a black shape, all of his features washed out, a symbol of the darkness consuming him. But even this is not stylistic excess, but is done in service of the story, a story that Ben Affleck and his cast and crew have truly brought to life.
9.5/10