Gone Baby Gone

By all accounts, Dennis Lehane’s crime novel, Gone Baby Gone, is supposedly a gripping read. Best known as the author of Mystic River, he apparently fills this novel with contradictory characters who rise to challenging moral predicaments and in doing so impart insight into the human condition. You wouldn’t reach the same conclusion after seeing the book’s film adaptation by Ben Affleck, who has once more stepped behind the camera to take on the roles of director and writer (along with Aaron Stockard). In this tale of a missing child, and the private detectives who search for her amidst a labyrinth of mystery and moral ambiguity, Affleck has gravely neglected one of the most important elements in any story. While he may have done a fine job of evoking the desperation of a conflicted family, and establishing the beginnings of a potentially intriguing script, he’s forgotten to include characters.

The human beings who propel the narrative of Gone Baby Gone are no more than empty catalysts for the continuing action. Patrick Kenzie, the private investigator hired to track down five-year-old Amanda, is an entirely flat individual who displays no evident personality traits, and Casey Affleck (Ben’s brother) delivers Patrick’s lines in matching monotone. The police officers who work simultaneously for and against Patrick are just lacklustre actors dressed in uniform, Amanda’s drug-addicted mother is a classic cliché with her running make-up and brash irreverence, and, worse of all is Patrick’s partner Angie (played by Michelle Monoghan) who does literally nothing for the whole film – she silently accompanies on his various investigations functioning, if anything, as a liability that slows his case down. Sure, the storyline is relatively intriguing and the moral predicaments do provide some food for thought – but without characters these concepts can only ever be interrogated abstractly, which makes for a detached cinema experience that is easy to forget.

Rating: 5.5