Gone Baby Gone

First of all, I am a huge big fan of Ben Affleck; can you guess? He was born on our (Indian) Independence day. Whatever he does, it comes out with style — be it dating big-time actors (BenIfer, BenJen) or high rolling stakes in gambling.

Underneath that, he has a different streak altogether. He is one of the golden boys of Hollywood that has a Midas touch in movie making — be it as an actor or scriptwriter or director or shadowing his best buddy “Matt Damon” in the movies or Producer. Will you believe, If I tell you that he has got 2 Oscar awards; one for “Goodwill hunting” and another one for “Argo”.

In between, he came out with an unnoticed gem called “Gone Baby Gone”. There, he fared well as a director and joint scriptwriter. The screenplay is taut and creating a tapestry of multiple events, stitched together. The story is simple; if you had seen the hilarious movie “Baby’s day out” (Ok, it involves the kidnapping of a baby) then consider our movie as a synonym in the beginning & antonym at the end of the former. Again, the former has bone-ticking humour and the latter has (bone) dry humour. It takes time to hit you.

What is more interesting is the multiple climaxes this movie has got. Each one is a structure that elevates the viewer to the next level and sets up an unexpected climax. Just like the way it tires out the lead detective, we may also sigh a huge relief. One particular sequence of drug-busting gets on our nerves. All credit goes to the editor for setting up the sequence in such ways.

When you have many talented actors like Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, Michelle Moyanahan, Titus Welliver (yes, the hero of the Bosch series ), it is very difficult to take our eyes off one personality and move to another. But, Amy Ryan as the helpless drug-addicted mother sweeps all of them away with her simmering performance. The background score is highly gripping and matches the tautness of the script, both literally & figuratively.

Go for GBG, if you are not a weak-hearted one!