Something doing the right thing isn't necessarily doing the best thing

That's the thought that you take away from the end of Gone Baby Gone. At least, it's the thought that I took away from it.

Gone Baby Gone, if you don't know, is a film from the novel by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River), directed by Ben Affleck, and starring younger brother Casey Affleck. I know what you're thinking, "Two Afflecks connected with one movie? Oof!" But stick with me here, because this was an excellent film.

Set in Boston, Gone Baby Gone is a mystery. A young girl goes missing, and Casey Affleck's private eye character is called by the aunt and uncle in to expand the police investigation. The reason being is because he's "from the neighborhood" (the neigborhood being Dorchester), and people that would not talk to the police might talk to him. I don't want to go too much into the story, because doing so would obviously entail some spoilers. Needless to say, as a mystery, there's the premise, following the trail, some red herrings and plot twists, and the eventual unraveling of the crime. Mysteries can be complicated in the details but in general aren't very complex creatures at their core.

I do want to discuss some other aspects of the film however. The only thing I've read from Lehane was Mystic River. I've always meant to check out more, as I've herad good things, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Not having read the book, I can't speak to the origianl source material, I can only base my review of the film on the merits of what it presented. And as such its a very brave, and dark, and....raw? film. Lehane is a Boston area native, and so is Affleck, and this film may just be the best "Boston" film I've seen. You recognize the locations, and more impotrantly the people. For better or worse, (with perhaps the exception of Morgan Freeman, who is pretty much always just Morgan Freeman), these characters are Boston folk. The attitude, and yes the accents, are so familiar that for the first time seeing a film set in my home city I feel like I could actually be watching news footage and not a fictional account.

I believe this is Affleck's first time in the directing chair, but you wouldn't know it. I read another review that called him "confident" behind the camera. That's an apt term He did not make a film that was easy. As stated above, he made one that was brave. By the end of this film, every main character's life, (with the possible exception of one) has been changed for the worse. This is depsite a "happy" ending, and speaks to the title of this blog. Casey Affleck's character has a choice near the end of the film to do the "right" thing and the "best" thing. He chooses the right thing, and while that provides the "happy" ending, big brother Ben's directing tells you that sometimes doing the right thing is doing the wrong thing.

The other standout of this film is the acting, especially of a few people in particular. The family of the missing girl could have been plucked straight from the streets of Dorchester rather than from a list on a casting director's computer. Ed Harris was excellent as the grizzeled, veteran cop. Morgan Freeman was fine, as usual. Michelle Monaghan was a little pointless. But Casey Affleck....holy crap! At times it can be a little hard to take him serious because he does look and sound like a younger, and smaller, Ben. And of course, his most memorable role up until this point has been as one of the doofus brothers in the Ocean's Eleven films. But he pretty much owns in this movie, to the point that I can't imagine anyone else in the role now. Between this and his role in The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, which I hear he's also excellent in, it looks like little brother could possibly overtake big brother in the acting department.

Which is fine by me, if big brother wants to maybe do more work behind the camera instead. If the future were to hold more "Directed by Ben, starring Casey" films, I'll be there to see them.