The Affleck's rise from the stink of the brothel

One of the best movies I’ve watched this year has got to be Gone Baby Gone. It is Ben Affleck’s directorial debut and stars his brother Casey. It might look like the older brother was doing the younger brother a favour but Ben did come and say he could have used someone else in the role but thought his brother was perfect for the part.

Ben Affleck really surprised me with this one. He took a firm step into territory that is hardly ventured into in the film world. I was on the Empire magazine website and decided to read the article and review about this movie. They too were surprised by both Afflecks’ performances. They gave the movie a four out of five. So I decided to check about five other other reviews and was stunned to find the movie was either a five or four star out of five. Nothing less. So I had to run to the video store down the road and hire it.

Once again, Boston is the setting for another crime epic, the other being Martin Scorcese’s The Departed. However, Gone Baby Gone seems to draw the viewer deeper into the community of Boston, getting to know the psyche of the people who inhabit this city. Affleck does well to make Boston the other major character in the film.

It’s about this young girl who was kidnapped. Casey Affleck’s character and his wife, played by the hottie Michelle Monaghan, are both PIs hired to solve the case. But they encounter some strange people and events that eventually steers them away from the case. It affects their marriage and their relationships with the fellow Bostonians. That’s as much as I’ll give away but the movie does something bold, which is why I was so surprised. Though it asks many ethical questions, there is one major question between what’s right and whats’ for the greater good.
I was speaking to the owner of the video store that I hired the movie from and he believes that we as people have no right to play God and therefore stands firmly on the side of Casey’s character. The thing is, the movie leaves a bitter taste in the mouth but somewhat is refreshing at the same time. It’s a taste I never had in a long time and only after I watched it did I realise I been missing it dearly.

The movie has an interesting background. I don’t think it was released in South Africa so it seems as though it was swooped straight to the shelves of the video stores, which is why not many people know about it. Another thing is, while it is out on DVD here in South Africa, the movie is only being released in US cinemas now. Quite weird. But then I was told by the same video store owner that the movie’s release was delayed in Europe and USA because when it was due last year sometime, little Madelaine, the British toddler, was kidnapped in Portugal. The story became so huge that Miramax decided to keep it away from cinemas until furor sputtered slowly away. It would have been too sensitive at that time. Eventually the real kidnapping story turned to Bizzaro mode and people got sick of it. Could the parents really have kidnapped their own kid?