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Looking Back…Gone Baby Gone (2007)

There is a fascination with families who go into the same profession together. On one hand, it is perfectly natural for families to feel drawn to a specific career choice, the other hand suggests that jealousy and anger must run rampant. Think of Gary Oldman’s sister who regularly punts on Eastenders or Will Smith’s third child, naturally there are going be siblings that succeed at the same career where the other lags woefully behind.

Maybe I am being a bit cynical. Maybe I saw my little sister’s writing and decided she must be quashed. Maybe there is a career where siblings can reside and build each other up, support, and nurture each other. Maybe this is the lesson of the Affleck brothers who have co-existed in Hollywood happily.

Today, they both release new movies: the eldest Ben has the tepid Live by Night whilst Casey is destined for an Oscar nomination for Manchester by the Sea. You’re thinking it, so we’re not going to say it. Instead of pitting one brother against the next, we’re looking at the best project they’ve done together – Gone Baby Gone.

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Set in Boston, the film revolves around young girl Amanda who has gone missing. Her mother Helene is a deadbeat quasi-drug dealer who spends her time with the low-life of Boston more so than with her daughter. Urged by the daughter’s Aunt Bea, private investigator Patrick and his girlfriend Angie gets embroiled into the missing persons case. With a lot of pressure to catch the kidnapper, Patrick enters the underbelly of Boston as corrupt cops, Haitian drug barons, and paedophiles to find out exactly what happened to Amanda… But will the case break him and his morality?

Gone Baby Gone strips back style for truthful film-making, capturing an uneasy part of Boston to tell this tale. Based on a book by Dennis Lehanne, Ben Affleck worked hard to portray the seediness in accurate light. That’s the crux of what makes Gone Baby Gone so powerful: The mystery unravels with the scum of Boston making it that much more palpable and engrossing. It helps that Ben cast li’l bro Casey to lead the proceedings. As Patrick, the younger Affleck is every bit as believable as a straighter than straight private investigator who is trying to do the best for the little girl despite the world around him trying to push him at every turn. Casey unravels Patrick in an enthralling way: as he is hit with violence and the lowly population of Boston, his moral ground shakes.

It’s a terrific performance that is only ousted by the sheer brilliance of Amy Ryan (who, by the way, deserves better in her movie career.) Academy Award nominated, she is a powerhouse here as the snivelling, self-centred, and depraved mother Helene. You hate her so much, much more when she scoffs that people’s disdain against her is because of her class. Ryan captures this so well and with a juicy understanding of how her character ticks that you relish in the loathing for her.

Working with Aaron Stockhard,  Ben Affleck truly masters the story and how it is adapted to the big screen including the aforementioned shots that contrast the opulence of the city and its criminal gutter. But what works greatly in Gone Baby Gone is the message. When the truth is uncovered, you cannot help but be torn between Patrick’s stance and the perpetrators too. You are unsure whose side is right and that sits in the pit of your stomach for a while.

Ten years on and the implications of the ending still back a wallop. After all, as a society, we haven’t moved forward that much. Children still go missing, kids still hurt, and birth families aren’t always the best place for someone to grow up in. The message of Affleck’s work is courageously simple but the emotions tied around it are awfully complex: Do we commit a crime for the greater good? For a child’s welfare?

Gone Baby Gone will echo with you long after viewing. If not just for Affleck and Ryan’s performances but for the fact that suffering such as the ones portrayed here still goes on. Perhaps, then, we need to look at the system that allows cases like this to happen.


Manchester by the Sea and Live by Night are out now! 

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