There’s a decent chance that a book written by Dennis Lehane might be set in and around working class Boston, Massachusetts. Translate the book into a movie with a screenplay written by Aaron Stockard and director Ben Affleck, then an even better chance can be made. The 1998 book Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane became the movie about a kidnapping and private investigation called Gone Baby Gone (2007).
With Ben Affleck making his directorial debut with the movie, the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston centers as the neighborhood where private investigator Patrick Kenzie and his partner and girlfriend Angie Gennaro see a televised plea by Helene McCready for the return of her abducted four-year-old daughter Amanda and the girl’s favorite doll, Mirabelle. In the immediate aftermath with the media attention this created, Amanda’s aunt Bea and uncle Lionel hire Kenzie and Gennaro to locate the girl.
Amy Madigan and Titus Welliver portray Bea McCready and Lionel McCready, the aunt and uncle to the missing girl. Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan portray Kenzie and Gennaro. Madeline O’Brien portrayed Amanda McCready to Amy Ryan‘s portrayal of Helene McCready. Using neighborhood connections to begin his own investigation, Patrick Kenzie is able to uncover information that points to Helene and her boyfriend, Ray, are drug mules for a drug lord from Haiti named Cheese. Further, Helene and Ray had stolen more than $130,000 from that operation.
It was in the course of meeting Captain Jack Doyle, as portrayed by Morgan Freeman, and police detectives Remy Bressant and Nick Poole that Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro share this information with the police to secure the police cooperation in sharing information that might make the information about Cheese’s syndicate useful. Ed Harris portrayed Detective Sergeant Remy Bressant as John Ashton portrayed Detective Nick Poole. Edi Gathegi portrayed Cheese.
The money path in-fact kickstarted a substantial path for the story. Without getting into details, suffice it to say that the tension and urgency one feels with a kidnapping case where the family is involved often is the opening setting for a thriller told in multiple parts. Learning what the story reveals, and then testing the worthiness of the investigative chops of the police and the private investigator, can shift the conflict for a compelling thriller.
The municipality of Everett, Massachusetts becomes relevant a couple of months after the Amanda McCready abduction with some information about Corwin Earle, as portrayed by Matthew Maher, becomes known. Where this leads a stalled investigation recasts many known facts with a depth that brings the movie full circle and saved the story underpinning the movie for me. That I am playing a bit loose with precisely how this is so makes for my suggestion for watching the movie.
Gone Baby Gone works as a thriller that offers depth of action with a story that moves the story along fairly well for a movie that is a directorial debut. Without getting into giving away core plot points, the fact that the movie has two major movements that are needed to explain the initial raised conflict of the story makes for a bit of a disappointing turn for me. The underpinning values that motivated the resolution, honestly, didn’t help in that regard. The film was well acted overall, especially with the roles offered by Casey Affleck and Amy Ryan. I grant Gone Baby Gone as directed by Ben Affleck 3.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, February 12, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 