After seeing The Town recently I decided to screen Ben Affleck's directorial debut, 2007's Gone Baby Gone.
While I'm highly critical of Affleck as an actor, I must admit that he does have talent as a director. The two films that he's directed so far are very home town oriented (Boston) and genre specific (cops and robbers). Whether or not he has an interest in broadening his range as an artist is yet to be seen but both of these films are excellent.
Casey Affleck stars as the private detective in pursuit of the truth here. A major "surprise" occurs towards the end of the film regarding the circumstances of the baby in the title and I, for one, didn't see this coming though probably should have. So, well done to the storytellers involved here...
Is doing the just and honest thing actually better if we know that it will likely produce a worse life for a child? Are we in a position to judge this? Who is right and who is wrong?
These are some of the provocative questions raised with the ending of this film and makes the journey worth it.
