Gone Baby Gone is the story of the mysterious kidnapping of Amanda McCready. Recruited to “augment” the police investigation by Amanda’s loving aunt and uncle, are Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) bitterly agrees, having the two detectives working the case, Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton) cooperate. After a tenuous partnership is assembled, both sides – the private detectives and the police – start working in concert to unravel the corkscrew mystery of Amanda’s kidnapping.

Along the way you ask yourself questions like, why does Kenzie see right and wrong as absolutes, why does Gennaro have such strong convictions about motherhood, why does Remy draw his fury from, how does Nick cope with Remy all the time, how did Kenzie escape the fate that befell his high school classmates Helene McCready (Amanda’s mom, played by Amy Ryan) and dealer Cheese (Edi Gathegi who you can catch this season on House).

This movie could have easily devolved into the predictable, rote, crime dramas Hollywood churns out like hotcakes. The movie also could have tried to piggyback off the success of its Boston brother The Departed, like We Own the Night did. Instead, Affleck dusts off his typewriter and shows he can write. That contrary to what Family Guy might say, Ben did more than smoke weed while Damon polished off the Good Will Hunting script (my apologies that the youtube video has been removed). In fact, Affleck shows startlingly brilliant qualities as a director – especially a first time one. The movie has a sharp, lifelike quality that never gets boring. The movie even escapes the possible disaster that could have resulted from a deep gap between the first and second acts of the movie. Most of that credit has to go to Affleck who hammered out, and stuck to, a script that is original and unafraid to make hard plot decisions we are not used to seeing.

The rest of that credit should probably go to the superb acting all around. Ben’s brother Casey could quickly turn Ben into Casey’s brother if Casey keeps turning in performances like this. Casey’s role as a well-developed portrayal of a hard-nosed Boston detective is extremely powerful. But the real oomph is in the supporting actors, who down to the very last, are exceedingly talented. Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman are great – Harris steals his scenes while Freeman does a lot with limited screen time. Monaghan knows her lines are few and her screen time scant, and she makes the most of her clever one-liners and her chemistry with Casey. A pleasant surprise was Titus Welliver as Lionel McCready and Ryan’s Helene McCready. Titus plays Helene’s brother, a hard workingman who cannot stand the life Helene has forced on her child. Again, just like Freeman, Titus makes the most of his little screen time to flesh out his character. I could go on about the other characters, because they were equally great, but you get the point.

The rest of the credit should probably go to Dennis Lehane – the author of the novel this book is based on. If you have seen the trailers, or can deduce from the short summary, that there are strong similarities between Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River – you would be right on – as Lehane is the writer of both novels. Comparatively (and I know this could be heresy), Gone Baby Gone is a much better movie – sharper, and driven more by multiple stories and performances than the power of Sean Penn and a poignant Tim Robbins. A quick Amazon search reveals Lehane has plenty of novels in the tank of this sort that sound just as good as these first two we have seen. There is even a “sequel” to the novel Gone Baby Gone is based on.

A final note on the movie that sets it apart from the rest: you could figure this one out yourself – but you won’t. In retrospect, all of the “clues” to the multiple twists Affleck has sewn into the script ARE there. There is no deus ex machina type revelation “solving” the super-complicated suspense thriller you have been confused over for two hours. Instead, the movie keeps it real, keeps it “simple” and gives you a chance. To me, this is the most important part of any movie – that all the cards are on the table. If you see it, good for you, if you don’t, well, you could have. The Afflecks hit this one out of the park – 9/10 saltystix.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.