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This gripping thriller could be located in any crime-saturated city in the United States, a country where two thousand children are reported missing every day. Adapted from the best selling novel by Dennis Lehanes (who also wrote Mystic River), it follows the case of a missing Maddy McCann look-alike from a tough neighbourhood in Boston. When four year-old Amanda McCreedy is abducted from her house while her mother is socialising nearby, the police have no answers. Her aunt and uncle hire a couple of novice investigators in the hope that their local knowledge will help with the search.
Detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Police Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) back up the young investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monohan) as they sift through a world comprised of junkies, drug dealers, ex-cons and child abusers. As the search goes on, the boundaries between right and wrong become blurred and the legal system seems to help those committing the atrocities. When a young boy goes missing in the same neighbourhood, the resulting confrontation leaves the audience convinced that doing wrong can actually be right… but is this always the case?
This directorial debut for Ben Affleck is a powerful and provocative drama. With his talented brother in the lead role (after his success as The Coward Robert Ford), he says that he wanted to focus on a story ‘that confronts you with your own ideas of what’s right and what’s good.’ Gone Baby Gone poses a moral dilemma for the audience when doing the ‘right thing’ has consequences that are as unpleasant (bad) as doing the ‘wrong thing.’
Directed by Ben Affleck. Rated MA.
