Gone Baby Gone

If there is a more understated actor than Casey Affleck, I'd like to see him. Bogart is the closest to it, with so little expression but a whole lot of vocal inflection and eye contact. I can't figure out what makes this guy so good, because he is so BORING to look at on screen. Yet, you sit mesmerized by something about him. Maybe waiting for him to DO something? When he finally hits someone in this film, even that seems to out of place. But back to the movie. Gone Baby Gone is a very good movie because it has to be compared with all the bad ones. Ben Affleck directs it and it has his same slow tempo. There are a few times when the viewer just has to wonder WHAT exactly the film is about- it is about the abduction of a child, or police corruption, or the death of a cop's kid, or a romance between two people who don't agree on right or wrong? There is also a strange plot diversion with a pedophile in a dilapidated house- well, that was manipulative and didn't belong in the film. It had one too many story lines. But other than that, the film has a good story- gripping and poignant, and brings up some important points about our treatment of child abusers in our country and how neighbors and neighborhoods can protect them. Also, in the end, the viewer is left to decide whether the bad guys were good and the good guy was bad or not. That alone makes the film worth seeing.