Gone Baby Gone

Whilst I am loathe to admit that anything involving Ben Affleck could possibly be good I have to admit that his directorial debut is actually... good.

Casey Affleck is still a better actor than Ben though.

So the story revolves around child abduction and why it is bad, with an added sprinkling of child abuse just to make sure that we fully understand the whole emotional aspect of the story.

I'm being flippant, the movie actually is really good and almost feels like one of those gorgeous film noirs I hold so close to my heart.

The story is sound, the direction works well, the score is haunting and appropriate, most of all the acting is superb.

Casey Affleck is wonderfully understated, Michelle Monaghan is fairly superfluous but carries her character with a believable intensity, and Morgan Freeman as ever plays the knowledgeable black guy. The real star to shine in this movie is Ed Harris, he is a good actor but by God is he good here.

This is one of those movies that deserve to be seen without the taint of pre-warned plot points, so I'm not going to say anything (yes I do play that card a lot, but if I'm ever wrong then you can feel free to call me on it, or just do us both a favour and get over it).

This is going to be the first movie that I've given an 'A' rating to in a while, largely because most of Hollywood seems to care more about effects or romance driven movies rather than a compelling story, and also because I think that Casey Affleck deserves it.

Maybe Mark Wahlberg should hang out with Casey sometime and pick up a few pointers...

Rating: A