Gone, Baby, Gone Review
by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)November 7th, 2007
GONE BABY GONE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"I always believed that it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you," Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) tells us somberly in voice-over in the opening line to GONE BABY GONE. Directed by Casey's brother Ben, the movie is filled with lines like this that are both pretentious and insightful. And, to make absolutely sure we fully appreciate the gravity of the situation at hand -- a child abduction -- Ben slows down the action way too often when he should be picking up the pace a bit.
Although it's far from the masterpiece of crime drama that most critics would lead you to believe, the movie is quite good -- a keenly observant film of life's ambiguities and nuances.
As we join a high profile investigation into the kidnapping of four-year old Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien), the family has decided to hire private investigators since that is what the parents of JonBenet Ramsey did. Based on a small ad, they decide to employee Patrick and his live-in girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), who specialize in missing persons. "In the spirit of full disclosure," Patrick warns the family that all he and Angie have investigated so far are cases of wayward spouses who left home. They feel unequipped to handle a case of this magnitude but are willing to try since it's in their neighborhood and they know the people.
Technically, the missing child hasn't been kidnapped since there is no ransom note. This means the Boston police, led by Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), are in charge of the case rather than the FBI. Since Doyle's only child was murdered years ago, he would appear to be just the right man to have in the lead. The mysterious Detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), a take-no-prisoners cop, and his partner are the ones sent to question the suspects and solve the case. They resent but reluctantly agree to work with Patrick and Angie.
The case proves much more complex that the television version being broadcast across the nation. Helene (Amy Ryan), Amanda's mom, is a self-described drug mule who, as we find out, was spending two hours in a bar doing lines of cocaine at the time her daughter was being snatched. Helene and her family, who might euphemistically be called a working class family, are really more like Bostonian rednecks and lowlifes.
Up until the last act, when things are finally resolved, the movie is always intriguing. But the story falls apart in the end. Fizzling when it should be sizzling, the film finally explains to us who did what and why. Mostly predictable, the ending's few genuine surprises are plausible enough but not particularly exciting or moving. (The film has accents so thick and mumbled that you'll wish you were watching it at home, so that you could rewind it every now and then. Also, you'll wish that you could boost the brightness, since the interior scenes are so poorly lit that it is hard to figure out what you are seeing.)
GONE BABY GONE runs 1:54. It is rated R for "violence, drug content and pervasive language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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