4/16/08

Gone Baby Gone

"When I was young, I asked my priest how could you get into heaven and still protect from all the evil in the world.
He told me what God said to his children.
'You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.' "

5 Stars



I had heard from so many that this was good and they were right. I honestly didn't know much about it except what all the buzz it got during Oscar season.
It was Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his younger brother Casey, and that's pretty much all I knew.

I was intrigued during that time about this actress I had never heard of before Amy Ryan, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. My good friend was certain she would win, and could not stop talking about how impressed he was with her accent considering she's a Broadway star from New York. Apparently so was the crew.
I read that her accent was so convincing that security wouldn't let her on set the first day of shooting thinking she was a fan on the street. When a crew member finally recognized her and let her through, she knew she had the dialect down.

The talent in this film is phenomenal. Above directing, I was glad to see Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay for it as well and he did a great collaborative job. Casey is quickly becoming a bankable actor for drama.
And a heartthrob...
He did such a good job as a man under pressure who had genuine concern for this lost girl.
I loved his fast thinking during a hold up at the bar. Great scene.

A young married couple serve as detectives to their small Boston neighborhood. When a little girl goes missing, her aunt seeks their help to find her, aside from the police.
The mother of the girl is supper trashy, and it seems as though she doesn't really get, or care that her little girl could be in serious danger, or even dead! Which is only one side of this story that makes this girl's disappearance so intriguing.

When I talk to people who have seen this movie I ask them, after the many praises we give it, "What was the right thing?" And the usual response is a hefty sigh and the same answer I have, "I don't know."

The end of this film really left me asking what would I do, and could I actually follow through with either side.
Is the right thing, always the right thing?
I go back and forth on the out come. At times I think it was a very selfish decision, and other times I feel the injustice had to be exposed.
Anything that makes me think this long, and makes me question my own choices, is just brilliant.

1 comments:

Adare said...

Yeah, I really liked this movie as well. What I liked most was that it was about a guy who was willing to give up so-called "do gooders", and even his wife, for what he knew was right in his heart, even if it meant the outcome wasn't the "best" for those involved.

It's a pretty deep movie, but something about it stayed "surfacey"... not that that's a bad thing, but it didn't necessarily hit my movie G-spot (aka the ol' lump in the throat). Still though, it did hit something when the finale came rolling around... the choice he made and how he stuck to it. Not many people would do that in real life these days, but it's nice to see a character still have those qualities that probably did exist sometime in the past in our society. Werd.