Affleck's Movie Plot is 'Gone Baby Gone'

Child negligence and abduction are both touchy subjects in all respects, but never the less, Ben Affleck undertook these subjects for his directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone."

Adapted from Dennis Lahane's novel "Gone Baby Gone," the film's release went off without a hitch in America, but Buena Vista International has indefinitely suspended the release of the film in the U.K. due to an ongoing investigation with similar characteristics as the film.

"Gone Baby Gone" employs Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) as the private investigators on the case. Kenzie opens the film with a monolog opening the case while the camera pans through houses of those involved.

The duo quickly become the center of the situation as they look for Helene McCready's (Amy Ryan) missing child, Amanda McCready (Madeline O'Brien), in Boston.

As Kenzie and Gennaro start their investigation, they soon find out that the child's life was one that did not involve much happiness thanks to her mother's drug and alcohol abuse. The detectives are not looked upon well by the police department in charge of the investigation and every time the department talks to the investigators, Kenzie ends up feeling like they are lying to him.

The film is shot through the eyes of the investigators and takes the viewers through the plot the way the detectives perceive it. With each new piece of information, the twists and turns become bigger and come to show who the abductor is.

"Gone Baby Gone" approaches the situation of child abduction in an almost opposite manner than the highly acclaimed CBS drama, "Without a Trace."

"Without a Trace" takes the viewer on a ride through the abductee's life and the audience gets to know the person who was taken. While in "Gone Baby Gone," Amanda's life does not seem to be the focus of attention as much as her mother's does.

The audience gets to know Helene much better than Amanda. At times it was a good change from the norm, but on the other hand, it would have been nice to get a closer look at Amanda, seeing as the movie was following the investigation of her abduction.

Halfway throughout, the audience is led to believe that the movie is coming to an end due in part to Kenzie performing another monolog, this time about the closing of the case without answers to any questions. However, instead of concluding, the movie introduces a new case, this time of a missing 7-year-old boy and how Amanda's case still bothered Kenzie.

This was an odd transition that should have been handled in a different way as half of the audience rose to leave at the end of the monolog.

The violence in the movie consisted of fist fights and shootings that took out not only the "bad" guys but also a few of the "good" guys. The violent scenes were well choreographed and added a different element to the movie, but the vulgar language was over the top.

The "F" word is a word that should be used in certain movies sparingly, this movie included. By using the word at least a couple times in almost all of the scenes, it took away from the film's meaning when it was actually put there for emphasis.

The acting in the film deserves a round of applause. Affleck and Monaghan both portrayed their characters very well and complimented each other in the fact that they had opposite personalities. Monaghan's character, Gennaro, was more of a logical thinker while Affleck played more of an on-the-spot character.

Kenzie and Monaghan are both fearless and would do whatever it took to get Amanda back. Affleck's character has some weak moments in which his feelings are revealed for the audience to connect to. Affleck and Monaghan properly emit the emotions appropriate for each scene.

Even though some may believe that Ben just handed Casey his role because he is his brother. However, Casey deserved the role and was the best choice.

Ryan is very believable in her role as Helene, the mother of the missing girl. Even though Helene's life-style is one opposite her own, Ryan somehow found the right way to come across as highly believable.

As far as O'Brien goes, she only has one line in the movie. For the movie to be about her abduction and to only have one line may seem quite absurd, but that one line tells it all.

At only the age of five, O'Brien captured her character's feelings and summed up all of her emotions into that one line.

The rest of the cast each takes on their characters with gusto and performs to their best abilities. Only one person stands in the limelight as far as not being very convincing: Ed Harris. Harris plays the role of Detective Remy Bressant. Even though Harris has some convincing moments, overall he tends to over-play the role by over-emphasizing his lines in certain scenes.

Halfway through the movie it was clear as to who the abductor was as long as one was paying close attention to the plot. Even though the abductor gave no hint to the fact it was him and even helped in a way, it was very evident that something about him was not right. At times, he and his accomplices became jittery.

Even with its flaws, "Gone Baby Gone" is the best crime mystery film of the year due to its unconventionality in handling a child abduction case. As Ben's debut directorial film, it was a success having him behind the camera, but not on the screenplay.

Overall, it is worth seeing at least once, but that one time should be at the dollar theatre.