Gone Baby Gone (15)

9:27am Thursday 5th June 2008

THOSE of you who kept faith with Ben Affleck through those dark Pearl Harbor days will have something to smile about this week as the actor releases his accomplished directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone.

Postponed in the UK because of its thematic similarity to the Madeleine McCann case, it's rooted in the Boston of Dennis "Mystic River" Lehane's novel of the same name. Affleck is, of course, a Boston boy, and his knowledge of the book's environments lends his script - for he also adapted the novel with his school friend Aaron Stockard - and his film a necessary verisimilitude.

His younger brother Casey plays the lead role, Patrick Kenzie, an investigator who is asked by the family of a missing girl to help the police solve the case, mainly by working his contacts in the darker corners of the neighbourhood.

Able to apply pressure on drug dealers and the like, he and his professional and personal partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) come up with the first real leads in the case, which they pass to veteran officer Remy Bressant (Ed Harris).

Of course, this being a filmic adaptation of a work of fiction, the story is a lot more complex than that. It's safe to say that, down the end of the line, there's a baddie or two waiting to reveal his hand, but let me reassure you that Gone Baby Gone's plot developments are worth watching and waiting for - as is everything about the film.

Affleck knows that good casting is half the battle and he's equipped himself with a winning hand for almost every character. Veterans Morgan Freeman, Amy Madigan and the superb Harris are joined by many unknowns, each wholly convincing as criminals, members of the so-called underclass, or whatever other figure of suspicion they're required to be.

Everyone feels real and (almost)no one is one dimensional, lending a genuine sense of threat - and some black humour - to some of the confrontational scenes, during which you'll have no idea what may be said or done next.

Above it all, the younger Affleck still manages to stand out, thanks to his natural, committed performance. Having already acted Brad Pitt off the screen in The Assassination of Jesse James, here he broadens his range once again, and supplies a great narration too.

He may be young but that's part of the point of this man, whose baby face encourages threats that cause him to reveal his innate strength verbally, or even physically, against varied opposition.

There's so much about this work to admire, from the cinematography to Harry Gregson Williams' lovely score, before you even begin to think about the questions it is posing and, refreshingly, not supplying the answers to.

Affleck allows it all to unfold at a perfect pace, while maintaining his focus on this young girl who is being disappointed by everyone around her, especially her own mother.

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