Gone Baby Gone

So I've reached my 200th review. Since I'm in a little bit of a crime mystery thriller genre splurge, I thought I'd watch and review a movie that is probably on one of my Top Ten favorite movies of all time list. And I said I would review this movie a long time ago when I did my review of The Town, so I thought it was time I reviewed this film.

Gone Baby Gone is the story based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. Now this is a book to film adaptation that I actually read prior to watching the movie a long time ago. I'm not sure how I decided to read this book but like the movie, it has to be one of my favorite books as well.

Little known fact, (or maybe its a well known fact) but this was Ben Affleck's first feature length film debut.

The same way Matthew McConaughey had a revival with the McConaissance, Gone Baby Gone began the thread of movies that suddenly made Ben Affleck a credible name again. This was the film that made me actually start to like Ben Affleck again.

Now, does that mean he can play Batman? I still don't know.

In all seriousness, something about this film and directing in general gave Ben Affleck some actual direction into how to act because suddenly he started being good again.

Now, I personally think that the guy is better at directing than he is at acting, but it definitely helped his career incredibly.

He actually just starred in a movie with a similar name called, Gone Girl. I haven't seen the film but its been haunting me the past few weeks so I'm thinking I might give in and make my way to a theater to go check it out. I've seen Argo, I've seen the Town, but I don't feel as though I've really seen Ben Affleck in enough to really tell whether or not I like him as an actor. I think I do, I just need reassurances every once in a while.

I'm hoping that Gone Girl will put my faith back in him as an actor. But this film, this film gives me all the faith I need in him as a director. The man kills it.

Gone Baby Gone follows the story of Patrick Kenzie (played by Casey Affleck), a private detective in Boston. He and his girlfriend Angie (played by Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the aunt and uncle of a recently missing child. They are hired to help the investigation into the missing Amanda McCready.

Kenzie joins the investigating officers, Remy Bressant (played by Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (played by John Ashton) in finding the little girl. Patrick and Angie believe they can help the investigation by asking around to people in the neighborhood, a neighborhood Patrick grew up in, and find people who may not talk to the police and may know something about the disappearance.

The part that makes this investigation difficult is that when they meet the mother, suddenly its obvious that the household little Amanda was growing up in was not the greatest environment.

Amy Ryan plays Helene McCready. Now there's a reason Ryan was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress because by god, she's phenomenal in this film.

Honestly the only other thing I know Amy Ryan from is being Holly from the Office and that's a very different role.

In this film, Helene McCready is a white trash drug mule who at first doesn't seem at all slighted by the fact that her daughter has been missing for three days. Its realized that the reason Amanda may have been taken was because Helene and her boyfriend stole drug money from a drug lord named Cheese (played by Edi Gathegi).

While Helene probably isn't the best mother on the planet, there's a moment where it suddenly kicks in and Helene suddenly realizes that her daughter might be gone for good. Prior to this scene she was joking around, being very carefree and then the change is subtle, but she realizes her child may not be coming back, and its phenomenal.

The sequential storyline zig zags in and out, making you wonder who actually took Amanda McCready and is she still alive?

The movie is a gritty, incredibly in depth Law and Order SVU episode, and its just so damn good. It also deals with some heavy shit. Its very heavy into crimes against children and its the kind of stuff that is hard to swallow sometimes. Ed Harris gives a great monologue on anybody who would ever hurt a child in the way they discover later in the film and he lays it out, if you hurt a child, if you molest a child, you better start running when you see me because you will be put into the ground.

And I guess while I'm on him, Harris blows it out of the water. Besides Amy Ryan, he probably gives the best performance of the entire cast, and the best performance I've seen him do in a long time. Remy Bressant is not a nice cop. He's not exactly clean either but he will do whatever it takes to take down people who hurt children.

Morgan Freeman is in this film. He rocks it as usual. He plays the Captain of the Police. The man can act. There's moments where I see this guy see something he doesn't like or you can tell he's hurt and its just heartbreaking. While his part isn't as big as others, he steals the show every time he's on screen.

I've already talked about Amy Ryan in this film. She's just this white trash, coked out, mother, and yet she's charming.

Now I'm not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing but not only does Amy Ryan give a great performance as white trash stereotypical Bostonites, but so does almost everyone in this film.

The uncle (played by Titus Welliver) the aunt (played by Amy Madigan), Helene's friend Dotty, they all make me want to avoid Boston as much as I humanly can.

I don't know what Ben Affleck's thing is with Boston and the accents. A part of me thinks its a cool accent but watching this it just makes me want to punch everyone with that really deep and thick Boston accent.

But you know... go Pawk The Caw! (That was my best impression of a Boston accent through typing)

Michelle Monaghan though...

I talked about Ms. Monaghan in my True Detective review, I also talked about her in my Mission Impossible 3 review.

In both I wasn't the biggest fan of her. I liked her in True Detective enough and I think its about the same in this film.

Let me be clear about something. I don't think Michelle Monaghan is a bad actress. They obviously see something in her that brings her back to great films like this and great shows like True Detective. However, I feel like, without seeing more, I have only seen her in good movies, movies that are not good because of her, movies that she's just in.

That was my thought process with Ben Affleck when he started being in good films, I was wondering if I actually like Affleck, or did he just pick a film that I liked? I'm kind of wondering the same thing with Michelle Monaghan. She's not a brilliant part of the film, she's just kind of there. Still undecided on her but its films like this and True Detective (not a film I know) that makes me reconsider her. Maybe I'm wrong about her, but I'm not convinced yet.

Then you have Casey Affleck. Now I think I've seen Affleck in enough to really give me a good picture into whether or not I like him as an actor and I think I do.

The big problem I have with Casey is how mumbles almost every word he says. And this isn't just for Gone Baby Gone, this is in every film he's in. Oceans 11-13, The Assassination of Jesse James. Its just the same mumbled barely audible talk he does.

He's entertaining and he makes a really good lead in this film, but he's not perfect. That's really the only complaint I have with the film and its not even that big. Cause while he mumbles, the guy can act. Its a similar case to what I said about McConaughey in True Detective that he's this stoic quiet spoken character, but there is so much more and he really does it well in this film.

This again is a case that I don't have that much to say about the film that I didn't like. Again, I can't be that objective just because there's so many things that are great about this film. There's action, there's great dialogue, there are moments that made me cry, the characters are good, the actors are good playing them, its just too damn good and its very hard for me to point out things that are "wrong" with it.

So again, I'm asking you, what did you think of Gone Baby Gone? For me, its one of my favorite movies of all time and I'm glad its my 200th review. Comment and Discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. I was trying to find something really great to put on the 200th review... but I really couldn't find anything that monumental. So instead, I'm gonna give you the trailer of the movie I'll hopefully be reviewing soon. It looks fascinating, its got Batfleck in it. I'm excited to see it. Here's the trailer for Gone Girl. Enjoy!