GONE BABY GONE (2007) (***1/2)
Ben Affleck slides from in front of the camera to behind it, making a declaration that he is a serious filmmaker to stand with the likes of other actor-turned-directors such as Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, the writer of MYSTIC RIVER, this tense crime drama plays out like a solid procedural, finally cumulating in a gripping morality debate that can divide audiences down philosophical lines. This film lives in the grey margins where opposite views can be equally right and wrong at the same time.
A young girl goes missing. Private eye couple, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, GERRY) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan, NORTH COUNTRY), are called on by the aunt of the young girl to supplement the police investigation, focusing on the neighborhood element of the investigation. The distraught aunt Bea (Amy Madigan, FIELD OF DREAMS) and her husband Lionel (Titus Welliver, TV's DEADWOOD) love their niece; possibly more than the girl's own white trash mother Helene (Amy Ryan, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD). Police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman, MILLION DOLLAR BABY) reluctantly connects Patrick and Angie with the lead investigator on the case, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris, THE TRUMAN SHOW). As the private eyes poke around they discover that many people in the working class Boston neighborhood have their own reasons for keeping secrets about the missing girl.
