Gone Baby Gone

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Gone Baby Gone
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Ben Affleck
Produced by	Ben Affleck Sean Bailey Alan Ladd, Jr. Danton Rissner
Written by	Aaron Stockard Ben Affleck Dennis Lehane
Starring	Casey Affleck Michelle Monaghan Morgan Freeman Ed Harris Amy Ryan John Ashton
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	John Toll
Editing by	William Goldenberg
Distributed by	Miramax
Release date(s)	October 19, 2007 June 6, 2008
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19,000,000
Gross revenue	$29,962,621
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Gone Baby Gone is a critically acclaimed crime drama directed by Ben Affleck and adapted by Affleck and Aaron Stockard. The movie is set in Boston and is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. It stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, two private investigators hunting for an abducted four-year-old girl in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Amy Ryan received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Helene McCready.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Release
4 Critical reception
- 4.1 Top ten lists
5 Awards
- 5.1 Wins
- 5.2 Nominated
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

When a young girl, Amanda, goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) with his partner and girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child's aunt to find her. She believes that their familiarity with the neighborhood will give them greater success than the local police and their captain, Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), who lost his child under similar circumstances. Kenzie and Angie discover that Amanda's mother, Helene McCready (Amy Ryan), and her boyfriend, "Skinny Ray", had stolen $130,000 from a local drug lord. Helene reveals the location of the money after Ray is murdered by the drug lord. Kenzie, Angie and the police detectives investigating the case, Nick Poole and Remy Bressant (John Ashton and Ed Harris), arrange to trade the money with him for Amanda. The drop at a nearby quarry in Quincy is botched and it is believed Amanda drowned. Captain Doyle takes responsibility for the detectives' actions and goes into early retirement.

A seven-year-old boy is abducted a couple months later and Kenzie poses as a drug dealer after receiving information that the boy has been abducted by a known child molester (Matthew Maher) being harboured by two drug-addicted accomplices in Everett. Kenzie later returns to the house with Nick and Remy in order to rescue the boy after finding evidence of his presence. A shoot-out occurs when Nick and Remy enter the house. Nick is shot in the neck and Kenzie enters the house to find one of the accomplices was killed. An altercation with the other accomplice ensues, causing Kenzie to retreat into the child molester's upstairs room. The child molester is seen sitting on the floor and tells Kenzie that it was an accident; Kenzie finds the boy's dead body then shoots the child molester in the back of the head.

Nick later dies in a hospital. At the hospital, Kenzie speaks with Remy outside. Remy confides in Kenzie that he once planted evidence on someone to help console Kenzie's murder ridden conscience. While telling his story, Remy inadvertently reveals that he knew "Skinny Ray" prior to the incident. This contradicts his earlier statements, and the fact that Remy lied to Kenzie puzzles him. Kenzie recognizes a police officer at the funeral, (Michael K. Williams), from an earlier visit to the police station and questions him. The police officer tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the stolen money before the drug lord knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda's uncle, Lionel (Titus Welliver), and pieces together that Lionel and Remy conspired in a false kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to punish Amanda's mother for her poor parenting. Lionel speaks to Kenzie in a local bar, telling him that Amanda's death was an accident and that the phony trade was arranged with the help of the drug lord's associate. Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun. He points the shotgun at Lionel's head, saying he should keep his mouth shut, attempting to scare Lionel into secrecy, or perhaps kill him before he can confess. It is revealed that Lionel has already confessed Remy's guilt, and Remy backs away, but not before the barkeeper shoots Remy twice in the chest. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building. Kenzie asks Remy why he did it. Remy's last words before dying are "I love children".

Kenzie is later questioned about Remy's death, and inadvertently discovers that a call transcript which led to the quarry meeting was forged - meaning Doyle was involved in setting up the botched exchange. He is not satisfied with what he knows about Amanda's abduction, and drives with Angie to Captain Doyle's home. He discovers Amanda is alive and living with Doyle and his wife very happily. A flashback reveals that Amanda's death was staged, and that Doyle was a part of the phony kidnapping all along. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities, but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addicted, careless mother. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, and Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and her mother. Helene is just about to leave on a date. She has not gotten a babysitter and just plans to dump Amanda on a friend, so Kenzie volunteers to watch over Amanda while she is out and they sit on a couch to watch television.

[edit] Cast

Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie
Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro
Morgan Freeman as Capt. Jack Doyle
Ed Harris as Detective Sergeant Remy Bressant
Amy Ryan as Helene McCready
John Ashton as Detective Nick Poole
Amy Madigan as Beatrice McCready
Titus Welliver as Lionel McCready
Mark Margolis as Leon Trett
Edi Gathegi as Cheese
Slaine as Bubba Rogowski

[edit] Release

Released on 19 October 2007, the film has grossed an estimated $20,241,408 domestically and $27,802,836 globally as of 7 February^[1]

The UK release was originally set for 28 December 2007 but was pushed back to 6 June 2008 due to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 12 February 2008. Extras include commentary by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard, deleted scenes, and two behind-the-scenes featurettes.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received mainly positive reviews from critics. As of December 31, 2007, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported 93% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 138 reviews.^[2] The review aggregator Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 72 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.^[3]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone raved "The brothers Affleck both emerge triumphant in this mesmerizing thriller.",^[4] while the New York Post called it "a twisty, morally ambiguous and satisfying neo-noir".^[5] Patrick Radden Keefe criticized the film for overstating the case in an otherwise laudable attempt to "capture Boston in all its sordid glory," writing that "The result is not so much what Mean Streets did for New York as what Deliverance did for Appalachia."^[6] In the UK, Gone Baby Gone received extremely positive reviews, including a five-star rating from Chris Tookey of the Daily Mail.