Gone Baby Gone

Gone Baby Gone
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ben Affleck
Produced by	Sean Bailey Alan Ladd, Jr. Danton Rissner
Screenplay by	Ben Affleck Aaron Stockard
Based on	Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Starring	Casey Affleck Michelle Monaghan Morgan Freeman Ed Harris John Ashton Amy Ryan Amy Madigan Titus Welliver Edi Gathegi
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	John Toll
Edited by	William Goldenberg
Production company	The Ladd Company
Distributed by	Miramax
Release date	October 19, 2007 (2007-10-19)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19 million
Box office	$34.6 million[1]

Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American neo-noir mystery drama film directed by Ben Affleck. In his feature-length directorial debut, Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard based on the novel Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane. The film stars Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan as two private investigators hunting for a little girl who was abducted from the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. The supporting cast includes Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Amy Ryan.

Released on October 19, 2007, the film was well-received by critics and grossed $34.6 million worldwide against its $19 million budget. Ben Affleck was lauded for his directing debut by many critic organizations, and Amy Ryan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

Boston P.I. Patrick Kenzie and his partner/girlfriend Angie Gennaro witness a televised plea by a woman named Helene McCready for the return of her missing daughter Amanda, who was abducted with her favorite doll "Mirabelle". Patrick and Angie are then hired by the child's aunt Beatrice to find Amanda. Using his connections in the Boston crime underground, Patrick discovers that Helene and her boyfriend "Skinny Ray" were drug mules for a local Haitian drug lord named Cheese and had recently stolen over $130,000 from him. After tracking down Ray and discovering he has been murdered by Cheese's men, Patrick and Angie join police detectives Remy Bressant and Nick Poole in investigating the case. Patrick meets with Cheese and tries to negotiate the return of Cheese's stolen money for Amanda, but Cheese initially denies his involvement in the girl's disappearance. Police Captain Jack Doyle later reads Patrick a telephone transcript of the drug lord calling into the station to set up an exchange for Amanda. The exchange at a nearby quarry in Quincy is botched after a gunfight breaks out, killing Cheese. It is believed that Amanda fell in the quarry and drowned in the confusion; her doll is retrieved from the water and returned to Helene. Doyle, whose own daughter was killed years before, takes responsibility for the death and goes into early retirement following public outcry over the mishap.

Two months later, a seven-year-old boy is abducted in Everett and Patrick receives information that the boy was taken by Corwin Earle, a known child molester. After entering the suspect's house and finding evidence of the abducted boy, Patrick returns with Remy and Nick late at night to rescue him. A shootout ensues with the residents and Nick is fatally wounded. Patrick enters the house and finds the boy's dead body; he then shoots the surrendering Corwin in the back of the head in a fit of rage. Trying to alleviate Patrick's guilt, Remy confides that he once planted evidence on someone with the help of "Skinny Ray" — whom he had initially told Patrick he didn't know. After Nick's funeral, Patrick speaks to Devin, a police officer, who tells him that Remy had known about Cheese's stolen money before Cheese knew it was missing. Patrick then questions Beatrice's husband Lionel in a bar and pieces together that Lionel and Remy had conspired to stage a fake kidnapping in order to take the drug money for themselves and to teach Helene a lesson. At that point, Remy (trying to cover for his earlier mistake) enters the bar wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun, staging a robbery to interrupt the conversation. Patrick realizes Remy plans to kill him and Lionel to keep them quiet, but the bartender shoots Remy twice in the back. Remy flees and is pursued by Patrick to the rooftop of a nearby building, where he succumbs to his wounds.

Patrick is questioned by the police about Remy's death and learns that the police never had a phone transcript like the one that Doyle had read to him prior to the botched exchange. The police dismiss his claims of Remy's corruption as conspiracy theory and Patrick does not press the issue further. Patrick and Angie drive to Doyle's home, where Patrick finds Amanda alive and well with Doyle and his wife. Doyle was part of the kidnapping all along and helped set up the fake exchange to frame Cheese and throw Patrick off the scent. Patrick threatens to call the authorities, but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her neglectful mother, and that is reason enough to not get involved. Patrick leaves and discusses the choices with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police, since she also believes Amanda is much better off with the Doyles. However, Patrick believes Amanda's mother can change and she shouldn't be denied her child, and calls the police; Doyle and Lionel are arrested, Amanda is returned to her mother amidst heavy publicity, and Patrick and Angie break up.

Patrick later visits Amanda as Helene is about to leave for a date. Helene informs Patrick that Beatrice has been forbidden to visit and is upset about Lionel's arrest. Patrick volunteers to watch Amanda, who is holding her old doll and watching television. Patrick asks Amanda about Mirabelle, only to hear Amanda inform him that her doll's name is "Annabelle" — implying that Helene did not even know the name of her daughter's favorite toy. As the film ends, Patrick stares at the television with Amanda.

Cast

Affleck directing on set at Meaney Park, Dorchester in May 2006.

• Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie
• Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro
• Morgan Freeman as Captain Jack Doyle
• Ed Harris as Detective Sergeant Remy Bressant
• John Ashton as Detective Nick Poole
• Amy Ryan as Helene McCready
• Madeline O'Brien as Amanda McCready
• Amy Madigan as Beatrice "Bea" McCready
• Titus Welliver as Lionel McCready
• Slaine as Bubba Rogowski
• Edi Gathegi as Cheese
• Mark Margolis as Leon Trett
• Michael K. Williams as Devin
• Jill Quigg as Dottie

Production

Filming took place on site in Boston (mainly South Boston) and extras were often local passers-by. Other locations used include the former Quincy Quarries.^[2]

Release

Released on October 19, 2007, the film grossed $20.3 million in the U.S. and Canada and $14.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $34.6 million against its $19 million budget.^[1]

The UK release was originally set for December 28, 2007, but was pushed back to June 6, 2008, due to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.^[3] The Malaysian release was originally set for September 20, 2007, but was postponed to March 27, 2008, due to the kidnapping and murder of eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin.

Reception

Awards and nominations

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 12, 2008. Extras include an audio commentary by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard, deleted scenes, and two behind-the-scenes featurettes. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Australia on September 10, 2008, in which the ending depicts Monaghan's character imploring Affleck's character to return the child to her biological mother.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Gone Baby Gone was released on October 16, 2007.

References

External links

• Gone Baby Gone on IMDb
• Gone Baby Gone at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gone Baby Gone at Metacritic
• Gone Baby Gone at Box Office Mojo
• Gone Baby Gone at AllMovie
• "Human Frailty and Pain on Boston's Mean Streets". The New York Times. October 19, 2007.