Rating of
3.5/4
"Gone Baby Gone " by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/02/12
The aunt of a young girl who goes missing hires two local private detectives to find her amidst the usual accompanying media frenzy. Gone Baby Gone was directed and co-written by Ben Affleck on his debut behind the camera but please don't let that put you off! It's actually one of the most refreshingly adult and well-written cop thrillers in recent memory. The story felt to me almost like L.A. Confidential done in the style of TV series The Wire, in that there is very little in the way of moralistic black and whites, all set in a ghetto-like environment with the associated colourful yet believable language and characters. It's a film that actually has something to say, examining questions of the personal sense of right and wrong and the cynical media hype machine milking such incidents for all their worth for its own gain. Of course having such superb acting talent involved certainly doesn't hurt, Affleck, Freeman and in particular Ed Harris are are excellent and Casey's brother shows an excellent eye in his surprisingly mature direction. It's not perfect; the story is perhaps a little convoluted as I felt that there was one too many twists for its own good, but aside from that there is very little to find fault with. One of the most accomplished directorial debuts I have seen in years and all this from the star of Gigli! Who would've dared to think...?
