GONE BABY GONE - Blu-ray review

If that girl's only hope is you, then I pray for her, because she's gone, baby, gone.

I haven't read any of Dennis Lehane's private detective novels, but I think I need to. I've just got to find out whether it's Lehane or screenwriter-director Ben Affleck who's taken the shopworn hard-boiled detective novel-slash-film and given it a substantial makeover for the 2000s. It feels different--so much so that unless you know ahead of time, it doesn't really occur to you that you're watching a genre film until you see that "private investigator" plate on Patrick Kenzie's door. Maybe the credit should go to Casey Affleck, who's turned into a surprising good actor. But I'm not going to know for certain until I read Lehane's Gone Baby Gone, which Ben Affleck reportedly said was his favorite novel.

If you're thinking that this film was a quick knockoff inspired by the real-life Madeleine McCann case--the little girl who disappeared from her family's Portugal vacation home while her mom and dad were at a party not far away--it's really just another case of life imitating art. Lehane's novel about a four-year-old girl who turns up missing under similar circumstances was published way back in 1994.

"Gone Baby Gone" begins with a world-weary voiceover that says "I lived on this block my whole life" and establishes Kenzie as an insider. But the voiceover quickly stops as the dramatic action takes over. Lehane and Affleck capture the essence of Dorchester, Massachusetts in this gritty crime thriller that takes you through a world of drug users, drug dealers, small-time hoods, and big-time dreamers.

This is a detail-rich film, an atmosphere-rich film, with Affleck doing a nifty job of integrating details of the landscape into the action. But most importantly, this is a character-rich film. If the extras are dripping with authenticity, it's because Affleck chose to go with some of the locals as well as professionals. But it's the main characters that make this work as well as it does. Every last one of them is richly drawn, with complex attitudes that cut right to the heart of human experience.

When four-year-old Amanda McCready disappears while her mother was out, the police tape goes up and the neighborhood and media are all upset--even more, it would seem, than the child's mother, Helene (Amy Ryan), who's a "user." But there's no mistaking the sincerity of the little girl's Aunt Bea (Amy Madigan) and her husband (Titus Welliver), who go beyond impassioned on-camera pleas to trying to hire Kenzie to "supplement" the police investigation. Word has it that Kenzie knows people and can get people to talk who normally wouldn't talk to police. As he considers the case, his significant other and partner-in-detection Angie Gennaro is reluctant, saying aloud what many in the audience might be thinking: "I don't wanna find a kid in a dumpster. I don't wanna find a kid after she's been abused for three days." Then there's Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) saying things like, "Were I come from, you die with your secret," and Kenzie second-guessing himself with an "I hope I didn't fuck this up." It's the human touches like that make "Gone Baby Gone" connect with the audience and add depth to the characters and their situations. Because they're more involved than we usually see in films, so are we.

Even the police spokesman, Capt. Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) has a deeper connection, because his own daughter was kidnapped and killed. Though the plot is pretty straightforward and doesn't any startling twists and turns along the way, there's an emotional resonance here that elevates the film. Same with the performances, starting at the top. "Gone Baby Gone" is the first feature film directed by Ben Affleck to make it to the big screen, and he pulls a spectacular performance out of his brother. With three other Kenzie and Gennaro novels out there, you have to wonder if the Affleck brothers will try this again. If they Affleck boys need encouragement, I'll say it right here: go for it. Lehane (or Ben Affleck?) really knows how to flesh out characters. Though "Gone Baby Gone" has the usual suspects, every character feels unique and fresh and fully fleshed-out. And boy, does he make you believe the world in which these characters move.

With so much going right, the pressure mounts to have a big finish, and in this department the film is only partially successful. There's a twist that most people won't see coming, but the film loses its strong dramatic tension near the end when it becomes too talky, explicative, and unnecessarily moralizing. Come on. We get it. There's no need to beat us over the head with long monologues. But that's the only major misstep I found in this otherwise taut investigative thriller. And for the squeamish, know that it's not as gruesome as it could have been.

Video:
My Samsung BD-P1400 had another moment early in the film when it scrambled the picture briefly, but other than that the playback was fine. "Gone Baby Gone" is a dark film in spots, and you don't see as much of the detail in shadows as you do in some of the best Blu-rays. But the colors seem appropriately saturated to match the drab world of Dorchester and the more vibrant world of clubs and their druggie clientele. The 1080p picture is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, stretched to fill out the whole 16x9 screen but with no edge distortion to speak of. Overall, the picture looks very good--even for a Blu-ray.

Audio:
The PCM audio, as is often the case, is even better. The English PCM (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is clear and rich, with a nice distribution across the speakers. There's no competition among the dialogue, music, and FX, with each seeming natural-sounding in relation to the others. It's amazing what sound technicians can do these days to reproduce gunfire so it sounds as if somebody just walked into your house and pulled the trigger. Great soundtrack overall. Additional options are English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:
Maybe I expected too much, but I was disappointed by Ben Affleck's commentary track, which he shared with co-screenwriter Aaron Stockard (who was a production assistant on "Good Will Hunting"). Though the pair give plenty of technical details, what I wanted most--anecdotes and comparisons to the novel--were in shorter supply. In many spots, their commentary was downright dull, too. If Affleck does go on to make a second Kenzie and Gennaro film, I hope he invites Lehane to share the commentary microphone.

There's not much more in the way of bonus features. Six deleted/extended scenes are worth watching once, but while it's interesting to see that Affleck abandoned a voiceover ending in favor of the one he gives us, we could have been told that just as easily as shown it. Better are two bonus features that come in under 10 minutes each. In "Going Home: Behind the Scenes with Ben Affleck," the affable Ben takes us on a tour of the neighborhood and points out different sites. In "Capturing Authenticity: Casting 'Gone Baby Gone,'" Affleck talks about his casting choices. Both featurettes are informative and entertaining.

There are no Blu-ray exclusive features.

Bottom Line:
Except for a didactic and overly self-conscious ending, "Gone Baby Gone" is a solid private detective story that in my book ranks right up there with the top films in the genre.