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The last time Ben Affleck stepped behind the camera on a film, he won an Oscar. That was for co-writing 1997's Good Will Hunting, and the success kickstarted a period in the acting A-list (his collaborator, another relative unknown at the time, was Matt Damon). The run was shortlived, however, after starring in critical duds like Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, and reaching a nadir during the "Bennifer" saga with the justly infamous Gigli. Many probably wished he had stayed off-screen. Gone Baby Gone gives ample evidence that had he avoided the limelight, he may have forged an entirely different and probably much more acclaimed career. Again, Affleck is the co-writer, but also takes the director's chair for the first time, resulting in an extremely accomplished character-driven drama.
The film, which was released in the US around nine months ago, was delayed here due to its subject matter - it revolves around the disappearance of a young girl, and so its similarities to the Madeleine McCann case were deemed to be too sensitive. All things considered, it was a wise move (not least because the little girl in the film looks uncannily like Madeleine), but Gone Baby Gone completely avoids feeling at all exploitative. It treats its subject matter with the utmost sincerity and seriousness, and the film as a whole is a mature and sombre affair dealing with some strong emotions. Most commendably, this is far from a morally black-and-white tale, with some events towards the latter stages being particularly thought-provoking.
A big part of the success of the film is the establishment of the area in which the events unfold. Like Mystic River, another film based on a Dennis Lehane novel, the film is set in Boston, and the two films share a very similar gritty visual style. However, where Gone Baby Gone improves on Clint Eastwood's directorial effort is in the depiction of the city as a living, breathing place. The fact that Ben Affleck is a Bostonian certainly proves advantageous in this respect, and is highly evident in the way he shoots the city, capturing brief (presumably real) vignettes of life in the urban sprawl. In many ways it is reminiscent of Michael Mann's unique insider's perspective of Los Angeles; a comparison which is high praise indeed and is fully deserved.
Of course, anchoring it all is the cast and there is not a weak link to be found. The director gives the lead role to his brother Casey, who has been making a name for himself of late (and was recently nominated for an Oscar in The Assassination of Jesse James), and he shows a talent and subtlety that his older sibling has, to be fair, failed to exhibit. Most of the acting plaudits here have gone to Amy Ryan (who earned this film's only Oscar nomination) as the drug-addict mother of the missing girl, and hers is certainly a good performance too, but a surprisingly small one. Ed Harris shows little that we haven't seen before but he is as convincing as usual. It is particularly gratifying to see the ever-reliable Morgan Freeman get his hands on a role that for once is not a completely infallible, upstanding character. It is the aforementioned moral complexity of the film as a whole that means that it lingers in the memory, well after the end credits finally mean that its grip on the viewer is loosened.
The summary
Never let it be said that Ben Affleck lacks talent. Gone Baby Gone is an excellent, absorbing and thoughtful directorial debut.
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