I think it's safe to say that this is the best film I've seen since Million Dollar Baby and that one shook me to the core. The thing I love the most about cinema is that you absolutely can never predict how a film is going to affect you. There's no rhyme or reason behind it. You just walk out of a theater moved, haunted, and changed without ever knowing what hit you. It's an indescribably beautiful phenomenon.
So can I even begin to put into words why I loved Gone Baby Gone so much? Well I'm here posting about it so I guess I should try. First and foremost, Casey Affleck's performance. Whenever I think about the expressions, or lack of expressions on his face, and the sad desperation in his voice, it gives me chills. Maybe it's knowing that he was being directed by his brother that makes the difference. I felt Casey's absolute dedication to getting this character right come out of every second he was on the screen.
And that brings me to the direction, the second biggest highlight of the film for me. I honestly had to keep reminding myself that Ben Affleck was the man behind it all. This is truly a tour de force for him. I loved how understated the performances were and how he was able to tap into the complexity of these characters without reducing any of them to stereotypes. By the end of the film you simply could not decide who was right and who was wrong even though every person in one way or another had done something terrible to someone else. I love a film that doesn't insult its audience by trying to convince it that the world is only one kind of place. While Gone Baby Gone does deal with the dichotomy of good versus evil and everyone's own personal system of ethics, I don't consider it to be a morality play. You never get the feeling that the film is being preachy and you certainly don't walk away with any answers.
Ben Affleck's direction and filmmaking style reminded me a lot of Clint Eastwood's which explains why this film had a similar effect on me that Million Dollar Baby had. I'm not sure if it's that Affleck and Eastwood were actors before becoming directors but I feel with both of them that there is this life force behind their films. And I don't mean that in a "man behind the curtain" kind of way where it's obvious someone is pulling the strings throughout. I mean that you can feel how dedicated they are to telling a story. When you look at every decision that had to be made by the director, i.e. who to cast as extras, how to light a scene, when to cut away, when not to cut away, when to push an actor to his/her limits, you realize how much a film is really a child born out of a director's passion and imagination. It is Ben Affleck who is responsible for every emotion and thought that will be experienced by the people who will watch his film and for that he really deserves to be commended.
One last thing I'd like to say about Gone Baby Gone is that it captures the city of Boston in a way I've never quite seen on film. I think what I love most about it is that this is Ben Affleck's hometown which everyone must know by now he loves and takes pride in. However, he doesn't glamorize the city and if anything he makes it seem like a pretty gruesome and brutal place to live. The people are hard, the streets are slimy, and you get a sense that those who are born there will never get out. I appreciate the fact that Ben Affleck respects Boston enough to show it as it really is. He cuts through the skin of the city and exposes its ugly insides and the result is absolutely beautiful.
