Gone Baby Gone among top crime movies of decade
Kirk Honeycutt

LOS ANGELES—Ben Affleck seemed like a promising young actor when he starred in “Chasing Amy” a decade ago. A year later, he and Matt Damon won an Oscar for their screenplay for “Good Will Hunting.”
But since then, Affleck has been better known for his offscreen romances than for his screen performances, which have been pretty universally derided. So a lot of people will be surprised by his directorial debut, “Gone Baby Gone,” though if you caught the glint of intelligence he showed in such movies as “Going All the Way” and “Boiler Room,” his achievement here might seem less startling.
Affleck, who also wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard, was smart to begin with a novel by Dennis Lehane (“Mystic River”). Like that story, which was made into an award-winning movie by Clint Eastwood, this one takes place in a working-class neighbourhood of Boston and centres on the disappearance of a child. Because this film is as uncompromising as “Mystic River,” and since the cast is not quite as star-studded, it faces an uphill battle at the box office. But it’s going to be remembered as one of the best crime movies of this decade.
Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) is a private investigator who works with his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) in a tight-knit Boston neighbourhood. They are asked by distraught relatives to help the police locate a missing 4-year-old girl. The search leads to druggies, crime bosses, pedophiles and compromised cops.
The plot is complicated and loaded with twists, but the writers do a fine job of keeping the action lucid. The script boasts a good deal of mordant humour, along with an underlying mood of melancholy. Perhaps what is most impressive is the complex moral vision that permeates the script. When Patrick gives vent to anger and disgust and shoots a pedophile, the cops applaud him, but he is tormented by the killing. That’s a sign that the film isn’t going to rely on pat moral judgments. “Gone” also contains a rich gallery of vivid characters, brought to life by an excellent cast. This is one case where nepotism pays off because Affleck’s brother Casey gives the strongest performance of his career.