Gone Baby Gone

Impressions before seeing it
I know it's easy to jump on the "Ben Affleck sucks" train, but I don't think he's a bad actor and I wanted to see what his directorial effort was like. Also I wanted to see Amy Ryan's Oscar nominated performance after her delightful guest appearances on The Office.

How was it?
So what Gone Baby Gone ends up feeling like is a Mystic River-esque mystery involving some characters who border on being white trash and two unofficial hired detectives. But Mystic River was a good movie and this one holds its own against it. I think Affleck's script and direction did a good job of showing us the characters and their environment, it feels authentic. Amy Ryan also handled her part excellently - she will likely remind you of someone you've met at some point, those lower class single mother types. Casey Affleck can be hard to picture as a tough guy because he's not exactly a big muscular guy, but clearly he has figured out how to play these roles where he is somewhat soft spoken yet still commands authority and knows how to invoke fear when he wants to.

What really intrigues me though is the ending (skip this paragraph now if you haven't seen it). The dilemma presented is so morally grey that it's too difficult to choose because both answers seem simultaneously right and wrong. Should a child be kidnapped and raised by someone else if their birth mother is a bad parent, or is it too wrong to separate a parent and child without either of them knowing the other is out there? Our hero thinks he knows, but as the screen closed on the final image of Patrick babysitting Amanda, I had mixed feelings. The good: Amanda is back with her mother. The bad: Helene is not the greatest mother, and even after getting her daughter back she's still hitting the town at night. The good: Patrick is watching her; if he continues that on a regular basis, he will be able to live with his decision. But I think he was having some doubts because he knows Amanda would have had a better life with the other family. I suppose he values honesty more though, and maybe he wanted Amanda to as well.

Recommendation
Great movie and an excellent cast. You probably will like it if you liked Mystic River because again it feels like the exact same genre, but for me I was most fascinated by the choices the characters made.