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Patrick Kenzie(Casey Affleck) and his partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan)are hired to help the police find a missing child. He promises the child’s mother that no matter what the outcome and no matter what he has do she will have her child back. Even when the story starts to unravel and Patrick fears the results he still keeps his word.
Patrick Kenzie: I always believed it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are. Your city, your neighbourhood, your family. People here take pride in these things, like it was something they'd accomplished. The bodies around their souls, the cities wrapped around those. I lived on this block my whole life; most of these people have. When your job is to find people who are missing, it helps to know where they started. I find the people who started in the cracks and then fell through. This city can be hard. When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. "You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves."
Patrick Kenzie is one of those characters who believes strongly in right and wrong. He has this sense of understanding; having grown up in Boston he knows what these people are capable of. Half the people Patrick meets up that he once knew through-out the film have taken the wrong path. What I think Casey does so well in this film is he brings to light all the little details of Patrick Kenzie, his accent, his past life and how it shapes the person that he has currently become. Casey is able to make us believe in Patrick Kenzie, the events that took place in this film and wonder about his past.
The entire cast whether they are playing the smallest of parts are still awesome. Amy Ryan shows the desperation of how when a bad thing happens people are willing to make all the promises to change but aren’t willing to follow through with these promises. Morgan Freeman shows us how a cop is willing to lay it all on the line for a certain cause when they know how painful it can be. Ed Harris shows us that even the best of people still rely on breaking the law in order to feel like justice has been served. Amy Madigan shows us how much family can mean to some people and how far they are willing to go to try and help those they care about. And Titus Welliver shows us that families can be torn apart, and when we feel there is no other option perhaps trying to show our loved another possibility is the best option. All of these actors help provide perhaps what is the best film I have ever seen about characters who are divided between what they know is right and what they feel is right. None of these performances will let you down. There are many more characters in this film that help portray these feelings, but these are the main characters that are the focal point and who help further the plot the most.
This film is based on the novel written by critically acclaimed author Dennis Lehane. Lehane has a way of keeping the story woven so tight that we cannot figure out the truth behind the mystery. He keeps an issue in the foreground, a relevant issue where the plot develops one way and then he keeps the truth hidden in the background, and when it all comes together it still all makes sense.
Throughout the film there are certain subplots that take a back seat and then find themselves the center of attention as the story progresses. One of those stories is when Remy Bressant mentions two suspects who could have kidnapped Amanda. Now once the subplot with Cheese is all unravelled and neatly in the films past, we move forward with Patrick watching the news and seeing that a little boy has gone missing. Then one of the guys he talked to about the suspects comes back and he and Patrick go to sell these people Cocaine. This is where Patrick notices a medallion around the molester’s wrist the same medallion the kid was supposedly wearing when he disappeared. This is the kind of subplot most films would have left out, or lightly skimmed over. Not this film, it brings us back, and it leads to Remy and Patrick confronting the kidnapper and his friends. This also leads to Patrick realizing that Remy Bressant is not the cleanest of cops.
Patrick Kenzie: He lied to me. Now I can't think of one reason big enough for him to lie about that's small enough not to matter.
Gone Baby Gone is a film packed with emotion and having to decide what is right and what is wrong. Go see it not for the acting but for the message and the continuing belief that doing the right thing is the way it should be done. I would also suggest a viewing of the extended ending of the film if you have the DVD, there is a final quote by Kenzie that should have made the final cut. In the end Kenzie did what he felt was right and that is all anyone can do in life, we must live with the choices we make.
9/10
