Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Gone Baby Gone. Feature film. (2007, 114 mins) IMDB

...Boston accents to add flavour...

'm always amazed at how I can't remember having seen a movie until I start playing a DVD. It happened with this film. I think I know why. I watch so many, they begin to blur. Once the film starts, I start to remember specific scenes and I know I'm not alone on that account.

The film is set in Boston because Ben Afflick wrote the script and directed the film and he's a Boston guy. And not Cambridge or MIT or Harvard, it's the poor area of Boston. The white-trash area of Boston.

The story revolves around a single mother whose young daughter goes missing. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear this isn't an ordinary missing person case.

The mother is a deadbeat, drug addicted piece of work. If there were ever a case where a mother shouldn't be allowed custody of a child, here it is. The performance by Amy Ryan was outstanding. The best part of the film even if we hated her behaviour.

Since the film is a mystery, who took the girl and why, is she alive, there are twists and turns until the final scene plays out and we see in whole what happened. It involves drug addicts and drug dealers, the detective hired to help on the case, crooked cops and honest cops and it's all based on people lying or speaking half-truths. What seems to be, isn't and that allows for twists when full knowledge comes forward.

If you can tolerate hearing the Boston accent, then you might enjoy the film.

Posted 2009/04/11 at 19h37ET in Movie Commentary.

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