Gone Baby Gone

First off I've got to give Matt credit for turning me on to this movie. I think that back when it was in the theaters I had opted to see "The Assassination of Jesse James by..." instead. My thought then probably was that seeing Casey Affleck in a movie would be alright, but Casey in a movie directed by his brother might be Affleck overload. I went to the wrong movie.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I saw "Jesse James" but just thinking about that movie almost puts me to sleep. Quite the opposite with "Gone Baby Gone". Over the course of the film there isn't a moment when we aren't wondering what just happened, what is going to happen next, or more importantly; what would we do in the same situation? I got to watch it with my friend Rob, and I would highly recommend that it should be viewed with someone who you can talk with afterwards. For me there were two stand-out questions raised, one of which was answered as I would have, and the other was a little bit tougher. Now there were a lot more than two questions raised, and what is interesting is how each answer or decision forced the film to take the next step. I liked that. Unfortunately for me to go into much detail about the questions would ruin the movie for those who have not seen it, so I'm going to finish up this review and in the next paragraph discuss those details. To close, the direction by Ben Affleck was right on, he captured the feel and emotion of the scenes very effectively. Casey Affleck got way more time here than in "Jesse James", and proves that he deserves to have leading roles where appropriate. My one problem was that towards the end the intracacy of the plot seemed a little too contrived, although I understood that it was neccesary to deal with the questions raised. The thing is that when I start understanding that something is a plot device it kind of takes away from the otherwise great storytelling. Of course for different people at different times this can work for or against a movie. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" knows its a movie but I can get lost in it anyways. And I can't even think of "Gladiator" without intense irritation, so go figure.

Alright so here's what I think for Matt and anyone else who's seen the movie. I hope that without a moment of hesitation I would have taken that guy out upstairs like Casey Affleck did. The only difference is that I suspect I would have unloaded as opposed to the single shot. Now if that's wrong then I'm afraid in that moment I would just be doing something wrong, but I have a hard time seeing how I could live with any other reaction. That's the first question I refered to, the second is once Casey shows up at Morgan Freeman's doorstep, do I make the call or not? I don't think I could have, not after seeing the connection there and the contrast to her previous life. Perhaps there would be an appropriate course of action, but I just don't think I could have done what Casey did. At the same time, I loved how he stuck to his beliefs, and as the film closed he even took responsibility for his decision. Thanks Matt for the good film.