Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michelle Monaghan
Studio: Miramax 53658
Video: 1.85:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 widescreen color; 1080p HD
Audio: English 5.1 uncompressed PCM (48K/24); English/French/Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital; Extras: DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Extended Ending, Deleted scenes with commentary, “Going Home: Behind the Scenes with Ben Affleck,” “Capturing Authenticity” – casting Gone Baby Gone, Audio commentaries by Ben Affleck and writer Aaron Stockard
Length: 114 minutes
Rating: ****
This is Ben Affleck’s first film in the role of director, and many would agree that his achievement in this sometimes difficult-to-view but hard-hitting drama surpasses any of the movie roles he’s had as an actor. It’s almost a sequel to the previous South Boston-based Mystic River. From the title and the opening of the film, this seems to be a police/detective whodunit focused on a search for a missing child. But young freelance detective Patrick and his girlfriend partner begin to uncover all sorts of loose ends in the stories of the various low-life characters they investigate, not to mention hints of possible corruption in the Boston Police Department. Patrick and his girlfriend partner have been hired by the aunt of the missing girl’s mother to help in the investigation but at the start they only get resistance from the police.
An unexplained disaster during the exchange of drug monies which the girl’s mother had stolen leads Patrick and his partner to think the girl had accidentally drowned in a quarry. A couple months later another missing child case leads to uncovering a different angle on the first disappearance. Ben’s younger brother does a very believable job in his pivotal role in the film, the seeming authenticity of the environments is excellent, and the editing keeps one on the edge of your seat.
– John Sunier
