Gone Baby Gone

After extolling Casey Affleck’s performance in ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ just a few days ago, today I watched him excel in the lead role of ‘Gone Baby Gone’, the directorial debut of his older brother Ben. The film is an adaption of the novel by Dennis Lehane who previously wrote ‘Mystic River’ and whose latest book, ‘Shutter Island’, will be given the Scorcese treatment next year. Lehane has also written for TV show, ‘The Wire’.

Like ‘Mystic River’, ‘Gone Baby Gone’ is set in Boston, Massachusetts, the city where Lehane grew up. Affleck plays a private detective who is asked by a local family to investigate the disappearance of a 4 year old girl. His leads take him and his partner throughout the tough neighbourhood, dealing with the scummiest of the scum. Also excellent is Amy Ryan as the young girl’s mother, a lowlife junkie.

I don’t want to spoil the film by giving any more details than are necessary but I’ll just say that it flows along nicely and always has you questioning, even after the end. This well told story earns 6 crumbs out of 10 from me.

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