Ben Affleck Should Stick to Directing

Gone Baby Gone (2007) Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris; co-written and directed by Ben Affleck.

Ben’s brother proves to be the real actor in the family, and manages a performance with some depth which holds its own against performances by Morgan Freeman as a revered Boston police legend and terrific Ed Harris as a tough Boston cop with questionable ethics.

Affleck is private missing persons investigator Patrick Kenzie, affable but tough, with plenty of street contacts from whom he gathers his information. He is hired by a grieving family to assist the police in finding a missing, presumed kidnapped, child, and he and his girlfriend-slash-associate take the case, finding themselves up against more than they bargained for.

The film moves forward through the first and for most of the second act with smooth predictability -- the likely suspect is introduced, a tough streetwise cop gets angry, time is running out on the missing little girl. Can she still be alive?

This thriller surprised me in that it ultimately morphs into a rather compelling tale of moral ambiguity, wherein Patrick's choice to make the right decision becomes a catch-22. Lines of right and wrong become blurred.

The film is not without its faults, but the elder Affleck manages to find a voice as director. And as director and co-screenwriter he makes some bold, if not always sound, choices: I personally found the brief image of an abused and murdered child rather gratuitous. But what Affleck gives his audience in the end is a film – and a character’s decision – which one will ponder for days to come.

***out of 5