
It’s easy to knock Ben Affleck. Hell, in recent years it’s been difficult not to. A cursory examination of his filmography reveals far more misses than hits. That, coupled with the kind of tabloid notoriety normally reserved for Elvis clones and slumming Grey aliens, made him an easy target for comedians and social commentators of every stripe for a good long while. The poor bastard’s been infamous longer than he’s been famous.
And yet there was that Oscar win – shared, for the record, with Matt Damon - for Good Will Hunting tucked into the back of his CV. For me, that was more problematic than anything else you might mention. The thing is, regardless of your personal opinion of the subject matter, Good Will Hunting is a tightly written, well observed film. It demonstrates an understanding of the screenwriting process and an appreciation of the form that is not easily come by, and certainly not easily faked. For a first screenplay, it’s remarkable.
The hot rumour was that it had been ghost written by William Goldman. Even though Goldman’s output in recent years has been less than great, I kinda half believed the rumour, for an odd reason of my own. I found it hard to believe that a couple of guys capable of producing work of that calibre could just stop doing it. The longer Affleck stayed on the lens side of the camera, the easier it became to believe that he was a fraud.
In a way, Affleck’s lucky his acting career has slumped so dramatically. I won’t state explicitly that the situation has forced him back to the production side of the cinematic equation, but it is hard to not draw parallels between his box office freefall and his return to work behind the camera. Whatever the reason, it’s become clear that Affleck should maybe stick to writing and directing, and give the whole matinee idol thing a pass, because Gone Baby Gone is an excellent film.
It’s also a mystery, so given a choice between describing what you’ll see and why you’ll see it, I’ll try to lean towards the latter.
Adapted from Dennis Lehane’s 1998 novel, the film follows private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) as they are hired by the distraught extended family of a missing girl to aid the police in their investigation. The police, represented by Morgan Freeman’s statesmanlike Captain Doyle and the bulldog pugnacity of Ed Harris’ Sergeant Remy Bressant, resent the intrusion but come to grudgingly accept the insights the protagonists provide; as lifetime residents of the film’s working class Boston setting, Kenzie and Gennaro can talk to sources who would never open up to the police. The strongest resistance, however comes from the missing child’s mother (Amy Ryan in a deservedly Oscar nominated role), who’s history of drug dependency and petty crime may have more than a little bearing on the kidnapping.
The acting is uniformly excellent, with only Freeman coming across as a little stale in a role too similar to the vast majority of his previous work. Casey Affleck, in particular, does well. Although not physically imposing, his character’s refusal to be intimidated by anyone, coupled with an uncompromising personal code, make quite an impression. Indeed, these characteristics influence the entire direction of the third act, raising the film above its generic crime drama roots and lending it a complexity that sets it apart from similar works. As the mystery is uncovered, difficult choices must be made by all the characters involved, and the outcome that is reached will not be agreeable to everyone in the audience. I myself yelled at the screen a couple of times, but I was somewhat the worse for liquor, so you may have a different reaction.
The film’s sense of place is also worth remarking upon. Affleck is a Boston boy, and you’re left in no doubt that he knows the town well. This is a film that could not have been set elsewhere; there is a palpable feel of location and community that is more tangible here than in other similarly set films. Yes, even more than Mystic River or The Departed. Affleck has a native’s eye for detail, and he shows us telling nuances that another director would have missed.
While not in the same league as such iconic crime dramas as Chinatown or LA Confidential, Gone Baby Gone is a solid and engrossing thriller. The committed performances and nuanced script put it ahead of the pack, and anyone with a penchant for the genre would be doing themselves a disservice by not checking it out.