'I always believed it was the things you don't choose that make you who you are: your city, your neighbourhood, your family.' - Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck)
Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, is a powerful study of morality set in the traumatic context of child abduction. It is no surprise that Affleck should eventually step behind the camera, having proved himself as a fine actor over a number of years and having previously earned acclaim for his skills as a screenwriter (in 1997 he shared an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting).
Gone Baby Gone, which he also scripted with Aaron Stockard is an impressive first film. Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (the fourth of his five novels about the two protagonists), it is dark, gritty, violent and deeply thoughtful. Affleck's direction is, for the most part, impressively assured. Although the film's final moments are possibly a little too blandly ambivalent, it nevertheless asks tough questions and challenges the audience to reflect on its own answers.
Gone Baby Gone is not a comfortable film to watch, particularly given the high profile of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007 (which is why the release of the film in the UK was delayed by over six months). For most parents, a missing child is an unthinkable horror, but Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) doesn't seem overly distraught when her daughter Amanda (Madeleine O'Brien) disappears from their apartment in a rough neighbourhood of Dorchester, Boston. She makes the usual emotional appeal to the assembled news crews, yet retreats indoors to watch mindless television programmes.
Helene's brother Lionel (Titus Welliver) and his wife Beatrice (Amy Madigan), who share the apartment, are more active. Wanting to exploit every avenue in the search for Amanda, they call on Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angela Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to ask for their help. Patrick and Angie are private investigators who search for missing people, but Angela is reluctant to take on such a case. She knows that failure, or finding the missing girl dead, would be hard to live with. Bea pleads with them to help, knowing that Patrick is someone who has grown up in the area and that people who won't talk to the police will talk to him.
After talking to Helene, they agree to take on the case. However, the chief of the police unit responsible for finding missing children, Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), is not pleased at the prospect of them interfering. However, he is legally obliged to cooperate, at least to the extent of having two of his officers, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton) brief Patrick and Angela.
Patrick's old school friends soon enlighten him as to the character, irresponsible parenting and drug habits of Helene. It begins to look as though Amanda has been taken in reprisal for Helene's part in stealing money from a drug dealer. The situation is more of a mess than we - or Patrick and Angie - realise for a long time.
It's not until Patrick becomes involved in another abduction case that he realises that Remy has lied to him about something, and the truth begins to be glimpsed. Patrick raises an important question when he reflects, 'I can't think of one thing big enough to make him lie, but small enough not to matter.'
The unravelling of the knot of deception leads to a point at which Patrick must make a huge choice. He can take a principled decision, wrecking the lives of a good-hearted, respectable couple and possibly dooming a young child to a blighted life of neglect in tough surroundings. Or he can focus on the apparent benefits of keeping his mouth shut, allowing the couple the happiness they longed for and giving the child a chance to grow up in a supportive, loving and generous environment.
