Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel -Gone, Baby, Gone stars Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator from working-class Boston who takes on a case involving a kidnapped girl. The girl's aunt begs Patrick to take the case because he has connections to criminal Boston that ...more

A fair word of warning: there is a scene in Ben Affleck's debut film where its title is uttered in a melodramatic manner that might make you cringe. This moment, and a few overall choppy elements aside, Gone Baby Gone is an admirable debut from Affleck, who has been critically maligned as of late due to his poor project choices. Returning to his Boston beginnings, Affleck tackles the task of adapting author Dennis Lehane's crime novel for the screen, and the result is a solid, if sometimes ...more

There is an old adage that defines the difference between "plot" and "story." The plot is that the queen dies and then the king dies, but the story is that the queen dies and then the king dies of a broken heart. Ben Affleck's directorial debut, an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel Gone Baby Gone gets the plot right, but neglects the story. The movie has a deliberate, occasionally ponderous, pace, but the plot -- involving the attempts by private detectives to assist the police in finding a ...more