OK, I'm beginning to feel a bit lonely posting here all by myself...but perhaps I'm just more opinionated than the rest of ya'll about what I see. Boy..sure would love some company!! (nudge, nudge..)

 

Either way I'm not totally comfortable about what my opinionated tendencies say about me as a person....lol.

 

Anyway...this last weekend another netflix offering arrived. This one the directorial debut of Ben Affleck in Gone Baby, Gone. Released in October of 2007, Starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Monahaghn, Supported by Morgan Freeman and Amy Ryan.

 

I really liked this movie...it was a definite crime drama. In the same line as Mystic River..but much better!

 

A brief synopsis: (a very difficult task, trust me) In Boston a little girl is missing! Her addict mother has an appearance of caring, but is obviously unaffected by the disappearance. The girl's aunt hires Casey Affleck and Michelle Monahaghn as private investigators to find her niece. Morgan Freeman is the Police chief in charge of the investigation .

 

Casey (Patrick) works with two hardened detectives to find the girl but uncovers a plot (or several of them) more sinister and more involving than any of us realize. The movie take several unexpected turns to get to it's ultimate conclusion.

 

What I liked: This movie was great. Dramatic, involving, unexpected, real, raw and sometimes startling. It showed the grimy realism of child abuse, the absolutely shocking (to this small town naive country girl) way profanity has infested every day conversation. Not just your run of the mill F-bombs either, but really creative stuff. (wow) It also didn't follow the usual formula you expect from this type of genre.

 

What I didn't like: Ben Affleck really accomplished a lot with this film, but I feel like he was trying to cram an entire repertoire of directorial tricks in a two hour time slot. It really felt like about 3 movies all crammed into one. It started with one story line that ended about 1 hour in, and then spread out into about 3 different directions from that point.

 

The movie also was very unexpected, and that really is something I liked. I've seen enough Law and Order to know the basic formula for these kinds of crime dramas. But Gone Baby, Gone made me think and and I liked that.

 

 

3.5 Golden Popcorns out of five

 

I thought this movie was amazing! I was extremely surprised at how well Casey Affleck did because I feel that Ben is a terrible actor.

Casey def got the acting skills in the fam.

I thought it had a very Mystic River quality to it, but it seemed more disturbing to me: I think because of the subject matter.

I was completely surprised by the plot because it did a 180 from where I thought the movie was going to go, and it did this a couple of times. I love to be surprised in movies because it rarely happens anymore.