Comments on: Gone Baby Gone

By: Henrik

Henrik — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:16:41 +0000

Just caught up with this. This is an american thriller when they are best. Although it suffers from ‘Book’, the structural intricacies I can live with, because of the strong performances and elegant direction. I was blown away in the opening credits when I saw John Toll had filmed this, and he didn’t disappoint.

Casey Affleck may have had one too many weird shifts in his conversations, but I did enjoy the uncompromising nature of his character. Such a character is easy to root for. Some awesome beards in this as well, both Ed Harris and Lionel sported great stuff.

The narration is weird and out of place in something like this, especially the way it was placed in the film added to the structural difficulties this film inherits from following a book a little too closely. The film also felt rather too long, but the last shot of the film almost seems to acknowledge this, and turn it into a joke on itself, by hanging for way too long on the ending frame, so that amused me and made me more forgiving towards the length that I would usually have been.

On a sidenote, from what I’ve seen of The Wire it has the detectives constantly yapping away, an endless amount of walk-and-talks and nonsense investigating. This film is way better than that.

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:06:05 +0000

The ending really is the weakest part of the movie, but the rest of it was so superb that I can overlook it. As per the revelation regarding Morgan Freeman’s character at the end, I don’t think it was a case of the clues not being developed enough or Freeman not really making it believable so much as the ending being just so utterly bogus in a way that I don’t think anything could have adequately prepared you for it nor made it any less ridiculous.

Although I have to agree with Goon that the last shot is excellent, and even that last scene is enough to make up for the bizarre stuff in the Casey vs. Morgan showdown. I thought Ben Affleck walked a really tight line here in making the movie tragic without becoming melodramatic, and that last scene really exemplified that for me.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:57:37 +0000

This conversation continues thick and heavy over in the MoviePatron Blog:

Beware the spoilers over there though. oi!

http://moviepatron.com/blog/2007/10/31/cinecast-episode-66-affleck-affleck-and-affleck/#comments

By: Goon

Goon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:06:38 +0000

using flashbacks to reveal whats going through a characters mind is just one of those things that tends to really irk me (I think the best example of it being done poorly off the top of my head is “Ray”) – if done too much at once I take it as insulting, and I just felt GBG crossed the line with it to the point that much of it seemed unnecessary and detracted from what I was supposed to be feeling. If it had only been during Lionel’s confession, i could have left it, but the way it was handled again in the final scenes really rubbed me the wrong way. Coupled with the fact that Casey’s speech to Freeman is his worst moment in the movie, the hammy “for your consideration” moment that is nowhere near as interesting as his acting anywhere else in the movie… pretty let down there. Gotta say though, its a movie I could watch several more times, and would buy a used copy of to hopefully look past what i dont like for the sake of the rest, which really is fantastic.

The final shot of the film is great. I mean its a little obvious message about the fate of this character, but coupled with the image of people staring at a screen while you stare at a screen, it was a little surreal.

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:03:35 +0000

I have to agree with Kurt on this one. GBG is going to be in my top 10 for the year for sure. I don’t think it will be number one but it will be in the top 5.

There are a lot of movies where I dislike the flashback reveal but in this case I felt it fit in perfectly.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:36:28 +0000

Love Beadie in the Wire (S2) and it wasn’t until much later that I realized that she had a major part in this film. Yes, there is a lot of THE WIRE going on in GBG, not the least of which is the “Integrity And Competence Will Be Punished in Institutional America” Vibe which was The Wire’s chief thesis.

As American films go, this may be the best one of the year so far. I don’t think anyone is going to top it by X-Mas either. Between This and Zodiac and Assassination of JJBTCRF, wow. A Great year for American Movies.

By: Goon

Goon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:14:05 +0000

technically part of the team… a while back I posted almost as much as Sean. Unfortunately life gets in the way of the things we love

By: TheSnowLeopard

TheSnowLeopard — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:30:29 +0000

Unfortunately, because of the spoilers I can’t read your review, Goon.

Are you part of the Film Junk team or can anyone post a review?

By: Goon

Goon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:47:54 +0000

just realized that Amy Ryan was a member of the Wire cast as well as “Beadie”

what a completely different character. She’s really something in this movie.