DVD Release Date:  February 12, 2008
Theatrical Release Date:  October 19, 2007
Rating:  R (for violence, drug content and pervasive language)
Genre:  Drama/Mystery/Action
Run Time:  118 minutes
Director:  Ben Affleck
Actors:  Casey Affleck, Michelle Monoghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver, Michael K. Williams, Edi Gathegi, and Madeline O’Brien

Remember when the public schools started teaching “values clarification” in class?  In order to encourage kids to explore their personal values and to become tolerant of others’ values, teachers tossed out various scenarios, like “Of these three people in an impending plane crash, which one should get the parachute and live?”  We had to scratch our heads and make tough, moral decisions about what we’d do in each case.

In the same way, Gone Baby Gone (based on Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name) beckons us to play God right along with the protagonist and ask ourselves what hard decision we would make about the life and well-being of a little kidnapped girl.  That’s the fascinating part of this movie, which happens about two-thirds of the way through the film. Before that, it’s a little hard to suffer through the grit, violence, language, drug and alcohol abuse that’s portrayed as part of the street life in Boston. 

The story is about Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), a young detective who gets hired by a distraught aunt (Amy Madigan) to find a missing four-year-old girl, Amanda (Madeline O’Brien).  Though Patrick assures her that he’s more of the chasing-down-guys-who’ve-reneged-on-their-car-loans kind of detective, the woman insists on using his services.  He, along with his live-in girlfriend, Angie (Michelle Monaghan), go meet the child’s single mother, Helene (Amy Ryan), whom they find is a rough-around-the-edges single mom drug abuser with a serious potty mouth.

They team up with two police force detectives (Ed Harris and John Ashton) and begin uncovering a scary web of entanglement that involves some shady dealings on the part of the mom, her ex-boyfriend, a known Haitian drug dealer, and some mystery players.  No one on the police force—not even the Captain (Morgan Freeman)—believe that the young, inexperienced detective can solve the crime, but Patrick makes a promise to the rough-but-grieving mom to find her daughter.

Patrick relies on his Catholic faith and the words of his priest as he struggles through several key decisions along the way. He uses his connections in the Boston ‘hood to glean some information that no one else can get, and soon he stumbles upon some horrendous information that could shake up the case on a number of levels. He finds himself face-to-face with a huge decision, the outcome of which would severely affect several innocent lives—including his own—forever.