Gone Baby Gone

And here is the hat trick for the month of October. Gone Baby Gone comes in third behind Into the Wild and Michael Clayton but that is not a knock on its quality. This was a strong film on par with Mystic River that, if not for a couple missteps in the final act, could have been the best of the year. At its worse, Gone Baby Gone was another great film with some sweet sweet Boston accents.

For the first two thirds of Gone Baby Gone, it felt like something that would immediately become one of my favorite movies of all time. It is very rare for me to get that feeling, in the last 5 years that has only happened when I walked out of the Kill Bills and The Departed. This started off so strong. All of the elements were in order. You had the setting, the characters, the acting talent, and the story all working up until the point where I got seasick from all the twists and turns. When Gone Baby Gone was moving in a straight line it couldn’t be topped.

First you had the classic movie magic Boston family, the McCready’s with Silas from Deadwood and Beadie from The Wire. Both of their performances were perfect and that is even with Lionel McCready’s badass Civil War style mustache. And Helene McCready was walking such a razor thin line, because she had to be believable as a complete dope fiend while still not turning the audience against her. I mean it is her baby that is taken and even I can’t actively root against her. Well I can but I try not to.

Next you had Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as the detective couple brought in by the McCreadys to augment the work of the police. I’m not sure how I will feel at the end of the year but I will wager a guess that this Casey Affleck performance will be somewhere at the top of the list. After years of supporting and character roles, he just takes the lead and runs with it. He is in control of each and every scene no matter whom he is going head to head with. You can feel the weight of every decision that he makes. Monaghan doesn’t wilt when she is up against Casey. She ends up with nearly as strong an arc by the end of the film.

The last group of players is the Boston police working the kidnapping case. And here is where the heavy hitters are located. Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris throw their hats in the ring with Harris delivering what may be my favorite performance of his career. Every one of his scenes is powerful without relying on the usual dick cop tactics. And then Morgan is Morgan; he really isn’t in Gone Baby Gone enough to heap more praise for the man. 2 other cops that do great work are fricking Omar from The Wire and Taggart from Beverly Hills Cop. Yeah that’s right, Omar as a cop and he isn’t even bent or gay. How can I not praise this movie?

Just a quick part about what annoyed me about the ending. The final act was in no way bad in fact it worked and the story stayed strong. I just did not enjoy getting knocked back and forth with revelation after revelation. If the story ended with the scene in the quarry, I would have been completely satisfied if a bit horrified by how bleak of an ending that would be. After repeated viewings I will grow to accept the final act and just concentrate on the power of these final scenes and work that was done by Casey Affleck.

I am starting to wonder if extensive use of Boston accents somehow magically improve the quality of a film. Maybe it was having Ben Affleck at the helm, but Gone Baby Gone looks, sounds, and feels authentic to its setting. There were moments were I thought this was the best film of the year. But for the reasons that I listed earlier, I am dropping this down to a 9. I'm not comfortable with so I will have to reevaluate at the end of the year.

9 out of 10