Gone Baby Gone

[stereosforgeeks]

Saw Gone Baby Gone this weekend. I honestly think I like it better than Mystic River. It maybe because it is way less showy.

There are some directorial choices that hampered my viewing pleasure but overall I was quite pleased with the result.

8/10

[Fried Gold]

Ben Affleck's new film Gone Baby Gone is unlikely to get a UK release because of similarities to the Madeleine McGann story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6992601.stm

...someone needs to burn down the offices of the Daily Express.

[Keepcoolbutcare]

Saw Gone Baby Gone this weekend. I honestly think I like it better than Mystic River. It maybe because it is way less showy.

There are some directorial choices that hampered my viewing pleasure but overall I was quite pleased with the result.

8/10

pardon the parlance of parochial patois, but GONE BABY GONE is wicked, wicked awesome.

The Departed meets L.A. Confidential meets Without a Trace.

riveted throughout, even when the necessary plot machinations kicked into overdrive for a point in the third act; the keenly raised, thorny intellectual and moral conundrum humdinger of a finale more than made up for it.

it never felt false, it pretty much told you right away what was what but did an admirable job constantly inducing wrong footed thinking with sly feints and jabs into other tangible scenarios, it was acted the fuck out of Fenway by Affleck, Harris, Marvin Dorfler(!), Amy Ryan (unapologetic selfish cuntiness; should get some sort of award nomination for doing it so fucking well), Silas Adams (2nd best facial hair in the biz, behind Sam "The Man" Eliot), and the scrumdiddlyumptious schnozz and sultry gams of the gloriously gamine Michelle Monaghan.

seriously, check this one out. Affleck done got him some cred back - he produced and co-wrote as well, so give him credit with enough brains to hire the brilliant John Toll to shoot it, and frequent Michael Mann editor William Goldenberg to cut the it.

damn fine film.

damn fine.

[stereosforgeeks]

Saw Gone Baby Gone this weekend. I honestly think I like it better than Mystic River. It maybe because it is way less showy.

There are some directorial choices that hampered my viewing pleasure but overall I was quite pleased with the result.

8/10

pardon the parlance of parochial patois, but GONE BABY GONE is wicked, wicked awesome.

The Departed meets L.A. Confidential meets Without a Trace.

riveted throughout, even when the necessary plot machinations kicked into overdrive for a point in the third act; the keenly raised, thorny intellectual and moral conundrum humdinger of a finale more than made up for it.

it never felt false, it pretty much told you right away what was what but did an admirable job constantly inducing wrong footed thinking with sly feints and jabs into other tangible scenarios, it was acted the fuck out of Fenway by Affleck, Harris, Marvin Dorfler(!), Amy Ryan (unapologetic selfish cuntiness; should get some sort of award nomination for doing it so fucking well), Silas Adams (2nd best facial hair in the biz, behind Sam "The Man" Eliot), and the scrumdiddlyumptious schnozz and sultry gams of the gloriously gamine Michelle Monaghan.

seriously, check this one out. Affleck done got him some cred back - he produced and co-wrote as well, so give him credit with enough brains to hire the brilliant John Toll to shoot it, and frequent Michael Mann editor William Goldenberg to cut the it.

damn fine film.

damn fine.

The major problem I had with Gone Baby Gone was the over grittyness of Boston. Yeah there are neighborhoods like those depicted. My HS being in one of those areas, but he utter lack of any "normal looking people" even in the background detracted from the realism that Affleck was going for.

There were some other problems with the wasy some "action" scenes were edited that I felt detracted from the moment and not added to them.

[RaulMonkey]

I creamed in my jeans just the other day when TAGGART showed up in GONE BABY GONE.

[Pacino86845]

Ben Affleck vs Madonna

Gone Baby Gone is the easiest film I've decided to write about recently, 'cause even though there are lots of wonderful things going for it, there are many many things that one can effortlessly pick apart, and ultimately keep the film from being great.

It's still GOOD though, namely due to overall terrific production values, some nice choices from director Ben Affleck, and especially because of Casey Affleck who here proves without a doubt (first indications coming from The Assassination of Jesse James etc) that he is not only able to carry a film squarely on his shoulders, but that he could elevate it beyond its limitations.

Without getting into too much detail, the story is pretty familiar to the average filmgoer, the easiest comparison that could be made is to Mystic River. You can't really go wrong with an abduction drama, and this is really what the film is about.

Patrick (Casey Affleck) is a Private Detective who has case dropped on his doorstep that's morally speaking the biggest case he's ever had. His conscience and proximity to the abduction of little Amanda from her home are the clear motivating factors to his taking the job, despite resistance from his "associate" Angie (Michelle I-don't-do-much-in-this-movie-except-for-one-bada ss-scene Monaghan). All of this is built up in the very first minutes of the film, w/ Patrick narrating the value of community, warts and all. (massive kudos to Ben Affleck for choosing to film a community more "realistically." No cute kids playing in the street and middle-aged smiley guys watering their lawns here)

**Mild SPOILERS to follow**

So Patrick is also quickly established as an annoying sort of fellow who sticks his nose where it isn't welcome, and by the end of the film I guess we learn why. Working with the cops, he digs deeper and deeper into Amanda's case and is confronted several times with some fairly intense moral choices, all the way to the end.

**Heavy SPOILERS, switching to tiny text... the review's title also makes a little more sense when you've seen the film...**

Ok, so here are my problems with the film... the first is fairly mild, and would otherwise be excusable, but here it sort of juts out because of the bigger problem, which I will get to shortly. First thing is that we've seen all of this before. This sort of drama is probably an automatic greenlight in Hollywood these days, so I guess I can understand that.

The second, bigger problem, is that the twists upon twists don't really leave us guessing, but they seem too much like one narrative device leading to another narrative device, all the way to the final showdown with Morgan Freeman's police captain.

HHHHHUUUUUGGGGGEEEE logic gap there, I don't even know where to start. How on earth could they possibly expect us first to swallow Ed Harris's Bressant character doing something so ridiculous as to stage a hold up in the town's swarthiest bar as a way of offing Lionel? Second, the "exposed" story of the ransom is so textbook that it lowered my impression of the film right there and then, even though the "real" story was a little more thought out.

But still, that all of this was some ploy to get a retiring police captain a child, a police captain whose career had become the fight against child abductions, is the most ridiculous logic jump I have seen in a film that is otherwise fairly outstanding. At this point, it all sort of fell apart for me, but not completely. How the hell could anyone swallow the fact that Morgan Freeman's character is a baby-thief?

So why did Affleck and co-writer Aaron Stockard go this route? Well, it was all to get us to the film's true highlight, which is a question (THE question) of the ends justifying the means. Of course, Patrick's answer is a resounding "No," so I expect that African Boogeyman Madonna will be returning stolen babies to their families.

It's funny that the film leads the viewer to a question about ends justifying the means, because I feel as though the means used in the storytelling to bring us to that point do not justify its ends.

Despite my problems with the film, it's still a GOOD movie, and I for one am looking forward to seeing more Ben Affleck-directed films, and more of Casey Affleck in leading roles such as this.

7/10

[Keepcoolbutcare]

But still, that all of this was some ploy to get a retiring police captain a child, a police captain whose career had become the fight against child abductions, is the most ridiculous logic jump I have seen in a film that is otherwise fairly outstanding. At this point, it all sort of fell apart for me, but not completely. How the hell could anyone swallow the fact that Morgan Freeman's character is a baby-thief?

since it's mentioned more than once that Freeman and his wife had tragically lost their own child, and that that loss is what led him to become head of the Child Abduction/Abuse Department...that loss, coupled with the blatant abuse of Amanda in toto with ALL the horrible cases Freeman has come across in his career?

a bit of a stretch, but believable enough for me.

Remy only went after Lionel at that point out of pure panic, 'cuz he know he would be spilling it all to Patrick. True, he could've picked a better place and time, it did seem a little too convenient to have Patrick around when he did...

GONE BABY GONE was also probably greenlit due to the Oscar noms garnerd for Eastwood's MYSTIC RIVER, also based on a novel from Dennis Lehane. Lehane has also written a couple episodes of THE WIRE, and Scorsese is set to adapt his SHUTTER ISLAND.

Curious as to comparisons between the novel and film, has anyone read it?

[Pacino86845]

since it's mentioned more than once that Freeman and his wife had tragically lost their own child, and that that loss is what led him to become head of the Child Abduction/Abuse Department...that loss, coupled with the blatant abuse of Amanda in toto with ALL the horrible cases Freeman has come across in his career?

ok, so Amanda was abused, all pretty obvious, but Freeman's character essentially became a vigilante, and not to help a little girl per se, but for obviously selfish reasons. An aged couple, retired without children (why couldn't they pop another one out of the oven? Yeah that's crude, but let's be practical here), are all of a sudden benevolent? Patrick himself mentioned just ONE possible avenue, working within the system, to help Amanda get a better life. What, the police captain didn't wanna bother himself with all that "pesky paperwork"?

Plus the way they went about the whole thing... I mean, they abducted the girl!!! Then they staged a bogus exchange with two cops on the scene, and this was a good idea how, exactly? Bah, it's too much, I say!! TOO MUCH!!

I mean, the Coen Bros. had the same premise for Raizing Arizona, but that was a COMEDY!!!

LOL, the sheer shortsightedness and stupidity of the plan is really blatant in retrospect, but still I give the film some mad props 'cause of the questions it raises, the answers it provides, and the costs involved that it conveys.

[tapehead]

Ben Affleck vs Madonna

I honestly thought you were going a little more literal with this; it is a film packed full of religious iconography, of the Roman Catholic variety, littering the living rooms of the characters, who are further bear crosses and medals which are insinuated into the plot.
I have to agree with Pacino that some of the plot contrivances hurt the film's tone, which otherwise evokes well a picture of Boston working class familiar to me from films like Mystic River and perhaps also Good Will Hunting (with, funnily enough, a little of The Departed for good measure). I also found a few choices made in the shooting style, while also elevating this from the telemovie cliches a story like this might have fallen into, borrow instead from action drama tropes that might have been avoided. But it's a solid debut as director for Affleck and there's promise enough here that his best work in the future might be off-camera as well as on.

Has anyone seen his other directing credit, a short called 'I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney'? I'm really curious, just on the basis of title.

[Vegeta]

Caught Gone Baby Gone on DVD this weekend. For Ben Affleck's first directorial effort I will say he did a fairly admirable job. The film itself is well acted and having read the book, has a good story. Having said that, here's my problems with Gone Baby Gone:

The Boston accents were extremely thick, at points it was quite difficult to understand what people were saying (especially when whispered).
I didn't care for how the fake reveal was shot. The dreamy dual shot of Harris and Silas on the phone was extremely meh.
I didn't care for how Angela and Bubba's characters were treated. Angela has a way more forceful personality in the books, she was like window dressing in the film. And Bubba wasn't a drug dealer, he was an illegal gun/explosives runner. Also, he wasn't a "yo dawg" type thug.


Despite the above problems I did like the film. I will say I love the moral questions Gone Baby Gone brings to the table. Also, it's nice to see Ed Harris working.

Vegeta gives Gone Baby Gone 3 out of 5 punches.

[RogueScribner]

I was gonna type up a review, but Pacino pretty much covered what I was gonna say. So reread his posts.

Good flick, but logically dumb. Pretty good performances and it does raise some interesting questions.

7/10

[Peven]

watched this last night and really enjoyed it. Casey does a rock solid job of carrying the film as the lead and Ben does a great job in putting you in a Boston neighborhood to see it all go down. surprise surprise, but i disagree with the knocks on the story as having poor logic gaps and such. to start the film, Casey is not narrating about the virtues of neighborhoods, for starters. he is saying that he thinks it is the things that you don't choose in life that define you, that make you who you are; i.e. your family, you neighborhood, etc. and he goes on to say that people are proud of these things, these things they don't even choose in their life. as he is narrating this we are seeing shots of the imperfect world most people live in, in this case a blue collar type Boston neighborhood.

our introduction to the missing girl's mother gives us the worst kind of impression of her, so right away we aren't sorry for her, our sympathy is diverted. it isn't long into Casey's investigation that a picture forms that seems all too familiar; drug addict single mother is somehow responsible for her kid's disappearance. spoilers..the criticism that the cover story hatched by Harris is too textbook misses the point, imo. of course it is, it was cooked up in haste by a couple of guys who aren't professional writers or anything. also, lets look at Freeman and his motivation. he is about to retire after a career of trying to save children. he lost a daughter himself, so there is that hole in his life. a situation is dropped in his lap where he can both save a child(at least, it is easy to rationalize away that he is saving her) and help fill the void left by the murder of his own daughter. not a stretch at all to see a man making the choice he did. same for Harris. about to retire. a man with a sense of duty to do the right thing but yet a lack of faith in the system. his faux robbery of the bar gone bad? he was desperate. he had almost no warning, no time to come up with some thought out plan. he knew the meet was going down and knew that the defining act of his career, his life, was about to be ruined. in his eyes anyway. people do stupid things when they are in a panicked, desperate state.


Casey's character is faced with a hell of a choice at the end of the film, a choice that i could see causing real heated debates among people who watch this together. i think he made the right choice, but i also think that Ben doesn't want Casey's character, or we the viewer, to feel too comfortable with it either, he doesn't want to let us off the hook to feel all self-righteous. the closing shot of the film is a great one for me, leaving the viewer to continue the story in their head as the credits roll, inviting us to envision how the next 10,15, 20 years will unfold for these two characters and how their lives are forever intertwined. it also invites us to take a step back and look back to the beginning of the story and look through again at things this time with a new perspective than our first time through, this time knowing all the facts as we see events happen. and as this goes through our head the shot of those two characters becomes more fitting, these two character who began the film with nothing to tie them together, except for being from the same neighborhood which is one of those things people don't choose in life, and by the last frame we see how due to the events of the film their fates will be forever intertwined, due to the choices made by Casey.

Casey started the film by saying that he thought it was the things that people don't choose that make them who they are, and yet, at the end of the film, it is exactly his choices, tough choices, that define him. i think more than a question of whether the ends justify the means the movie is about how among all the things that are beyond our control in life those spaces in life where we are allowed to make real choices are where we carve out who we are.

8.50/10

[Ribbons]

Casey started the film by saying that he thought it was the things that people don't choose that make them who they are, and yet, at the end of the film, it is exactly his choices, tough choices, that define him. i think more than a question of whether the ends justify the means the movie is about how among all the things that are beyond our control in life those spaces in life where we are allowed to make real choices are where we carve out who we are.

8.50/10

Yeah, I agree with this. They also hearken back to it in the scene where Morgan Freeman's character is trying to explain why Amanda (?) would be better off living with him. There's a definite struggle in the film between how much of your identity is a product of your environment and how much of your environment is a product of the decisions you make.

[Maui]

Watched this film last night.

Overall a good movie, I had some issues with the storyline, however it stood up well (see Pacino's comments).

I think this is where Affleck belongs, behind the camera, not in front of it. I was impressed with his directorial debut. Well done indeed.

I felt the film tried a bit too hard to be cool. A little too much ghetto thrown in your face. Sure, it's the demographic, but you know, enough with the Bling and the yeah yeah muthafucker vibe.

The moral questions that were presented to us were very powerful. I like that it really made me think - question what would I do in a similar situation? Brilliant.

Lastly, I didn't like Ed Harris's crazy hair. He should have just donned the bald doo.

7 out of 10

[anthonymous]

I also watched it last night and loved it.

*SPOILER*

I went into it not expecting twists for some reason and so each one took me by surprise pretty much. If I knew such a 'thriller' element would be be introduced I would have been on the lookout and probly spotted some of them sooner. But I thought the halfway point was actually a bold storytelling decision at the time and that the reaction of the 2 protagonists would fuel the rest of the narrative. As such, the twists being unexpected, I didn't really give any thought to logic issues or how realistic it was or whatnot, I was simply entertained.

*/SPOILER*

But yea I loved it, definitely falling for Casey after this and JESSE JAMES. Pretty looking film as well, the quarry lake scenery and cinematography during the 'jump' and stuff was beautiful.

As I'm not from the US I find the locales often more interesting than I guess you guys would. I liked the whole Dorchester thing and it makes me want to visit Boston someday (as The Departed also did). Similar kinda thing with Baltimore (The Wire), Miami (Dexter) and NYC and LA for a billion reasons.

[Maui]

Yeah, the scenery was beautiful.

Casey Affleck is very talented and really good in this movie. He was incredible in Jesse James (Oscar nod rightly so).

I forgot to mention - can't help but notice the comparisons to "Mystic River" minus the cranky Sean Penn performance. Not sure which one I like better though - both impressive movies, superb supporting cast and twisty plots.

[Peven]

Yeah, the scenery was beautiful.

Casey Affleck is very talented and really good in this movie. He was incredible in Jesse James (Oscar nod rightly so).

I forgot to mention - can't help but notice the comparisons to "Mystic River" minus the cranky Sean Penn performance. Not sure which one I like better though - both impressive movies, superb supporting cast and twisty plots.

well, they are both based on books written by the same guy.....

[Eunuch Provocateur]

This movie clearly showed the Affleck boys in their found roles. Casey in front and Ben behind.

Ben Affleck should never act again. But Casey needs to keep acting because he's quickly becoming one of my favorites.

[Maui]

This movie clearly showed the Affleck boys in their found roles. Casey in front and Ben behind.

Ben Affleck should never act again. But Casey needs to keep acting because he's quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Well I'm not part of Ben's cheerleading section, but I will give him props for his portrayal of Superman in "HollywoodLand" and also his role in "Changing Lanes".

I'd have to agree with that statement, Casey is the actor in that family.

[Vegeta]

Yeah, the scenery was beautiful.

Casey Affleck is very talented and really good in this movie. He was incredible in Jesse James (Oscar nod rightly so).

I forgot to mention - can't help but notice the comparisons to "Mystic River" minus the cranky Sean Penn performance. Not sure which one I like better though - both impressive movies, superb supporting cast and twisty plots.

well, they are both based on books written by the same guy.....

Dennis Lehane. Excellent mystery writer. I've read the entire Kenzie/Genaro (Gone Baby, Gone is the 4th book) series and a couple of his other novels and it's great work. Lehane's "Shutter Island", that Scorcese is directing should be awesome!

[Maui]

Yeah, the scenery was beautiful.

Casey Affleck is very talented and really good in this movie. He was incredible in Jesse James (Oscar nod rightly so).

I forgot to mention - can't help but notice the comparisons to "Mystic River" minus the cranky Sean Penn performance. Not sure which one I like better though - both impressive movies, superb supporting cast and twisty plots.

well, they are both based on books written by the same guy.....

Dennis Lehane. Excellent mystery writer. I've read the entire Kenzie/Genaro (Gone Baby, Gone is the 4th book) series and a couple of his other novels and it's great work. Lehane's "Shutter Island", that Scorcese is directing should be awesome!

OH? Well, that certainly makes more sense.

Sounds like they are worth a read.

[Peven]

don't you roll your eyes at me, you uppity Canuck

[Maui]

the closing shot of the film is a great one for me, leaving the viewer to continue the story in their head as the credits roll, inviting us to envision how the next 10,15, 20 years will unfold for these two characters and how their lives are forever intertwined.

I felt this way too about the ending shot. It made me think that he was going to have a role, in some small way, with this young girl's life and become more of a supportive friend to the troubled mother.

[Ribbons]

Lastly, I didn't like Ed Harris's crazy hair. He should have just donned the bald do

It made him look a bit like Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises to me. I guess it was a combination of the nice suit and the sandy blond brick top.

I like the final shot a lot as well (plus the Mojave 3 song). It's interesting because in movie language, most of the time you see two people bathed in the light of a television on opposite ends of the couch, the message is 'poor relationship skills.' And maybe that's still true here, but you get the sense that simple act of Casey sitting there and watching TV with the little girl is probably the best thing anyone's ever done for her (besides for save her... arguably).

[Maui]

It made him look a bit like Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises to me. I guess it was a combination of the nice suit and the sandy blond brick top.

I was thinking more Joe Dirt.

[Ribbons]

I was also impressed with Ben Affleck's directorial effort. I know that he speaks of Boston fondly in interviews, so I was afraid going in that he was going to over-sentimentalize the place. But if anything, he did the opposite. I liked the one shot of the newsanchor who was only dressed from the waist up.

Also in reference to one of the points Pacino makes:

The film certainly has its share of logic problems, but I don't think Morgan Freeman's character being concerned with child abduction is a conflict of interest, if you consider that most of the people who abduct children don't do it to give them a better life.

[Maui]

We could have a pretty good debate on what everyone would have done in Casey Affleck's situation, huh?

I lent my movie to a friend last night. He really liked the movie, he said without a doubt, he would have left the kid with Morgan Freeman's character.

[anthonymous]

/SPOILER




I perhaps would have left her with Doyle but told Bea and let her decide, maybe Bea and Doyle could have worked something out.




/SPOILER

[Maui]

I was also impressed with Ben Affleck's directorial effort. I know that he speaks of Boston fondly in interviews, so I was afraid going in that he was going to over-sentimentalize the place. But if anything, he did the opposite. I liked the one shot of the newsanchor who was only dressed from the waist up.

Also in reference to one of the points Pacino makes:

The film certainly has its share of logic problems, but I don't think Morgan Freeman's character being concerned with child abduction is a conflict of interest, if you consider that most of the people who abduct children don't do it to give them a better life.

They kinda setup Morgan Freeman from the very beginning, atleast I thought so. Their first encounter with Freeman in the girl's bedroom, I just got a weird vibe from him. Again, when they visited him at his office, he was just a little too militant about the entire case.

[Peven]

We could have a pretty good debate on what everyone would have done in Casey Affleck's situation, huh?

I lent my movie to a friend last night. He really liked the movie, he said without a doubt, he would have left the kid with Morgan Freeman's character.

your friend should think on this..."taking the easy path makes crooked rivers and men."

[Maui]

Yeah, I know, I was like wuh? huh? really?

[Worst Part's Almost Over]

Excellent. Saw this last night and I'm bloody impressed with Affleck's directing and style, this should be a direction he goes in and stays in. The world has had enough of Affleck the actor it seems, so lets see more work like this.

Gripping movie, had me hooked until the very end and the tension is beautifully tightened up in the final half hour. Great supporting cast (can you go wrong with Freeman?) and Casey Affleck really shows some mature development as an actor here. I'd happily pay to see him again after his performance here.

I think this is going to be on my top ten list by the end of the year. Anyone who's a fan of complex, intricate crime thrillers should seek this out asap.

9/10

[travis-dane]

I just finished watching GONE BABY GONE.
It's fantastic, it has a stellar cast including Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and John Ashton.All of them give great performances.
But what really got me, is the story. The story is really deep and deals with some issues that other Hollywood movies avoid at all costs.(when you see the movie you will know what I mean.)
The movie proved to me once more that Ed Harris is one of the greatest actors alive, every scene he is in is gold.
Ben Affleck does a great job behind the camera, I hope he can hold this level in the Future.

So, GONE BABY GONE gets 10 out of 10.

a must see...

[caruso_stalker217]

I just finished watching GONE BABY GONE.
It's fantastic, it has a stellar cast including Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and John Ashton.All of them give great performances.
But what really got me, is the story. The story is really deep and deals with some issues that other Hollywood movies avoid at all costs.(when you see the movie you will know what I mean.)
The movie proved to me once more that Ed Harris is one of the greatest actors alive, every scene he is in is gold.
Ben Affleck does a great job behind the camera, I hope he can hold this level in the Future.

So, GONE BABY GONE gets 10 out of 10.

a must see...

Didn't I tell ya? DIDN'T I?