HEFE'S REVIEW OF:
GONE BABY GONE (2007)

OPENING THOUGHTS

    I wasn't too sure about this movie, Ben Affleck has been up to no good for so damn long that I couldn't imagine anything good cumming out of him. Not to mention Casey Affleck as a lead? He is not generally the strongest actor, but for whatever reason 2007 seemed to be Casey's year (alll those handjobs finally paid off). Despite the inherit risk that this movie could be complete balls, I decided to give it a try.

ACTING

    CASEY AFFLECK was as weak as he usually he is, he once again looked extremely tired and was not very good at enunciating. I am still convinced that he is nothing more than Ben Affleck in a little boy's mask. If this movie was supposed to convince me that Casey Affleck is a legitimate actor who needs to be taken seriously then it failed, it failed miserably.
    MICHELLE MONAGHAN is a cutie petutie, and she looked a lot like Justine Bateman in this movie. I know I really should say more about her, but I am not inspired to do so. Maybe if she had shown me a couple of her friends I would have had more to say... and of course by friends I mean nipples.
    AMY ADAMS was amazing in this movie and she should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she was way better than that Tilda Swinton dude. Her accent was flawless and the bizarre emotions and mood swings that she delivered were good enough to make any Jerry Springer fan feel right at home. I don't recall Amy Adams from many other things in the past, but believe you me I will be watching her career from now on. Mostly because I want to see if she can follow up with another performance as good as this one or if she is more of a one hit wonder.
    TITUS WELLIVER which I swear is his real name was awesome in this movie. He had a bad ass mustache that made me smile everytime it appeared on the screen. It is the type of mustache that makes people's careers, people like Tom Selleck and Wilford Brimley. As if that wasn't enough his accent was exactly like Jimmy Fallon's in the "know you are" sketch. It was completely ridiculous and I loved every mustachioed moment of it.

DIRECTION AND SCRIPT

    BEN AFFLECK did a pretty good job with the direction of this film, much better than his last few years worth of acting roles anyway. The pacing moved along at a pretty good pace, and the twist in the film I actually didn't see coming. I think there was some questionable choices in the middle of the movie with the sort of quasi half ending. The middle of the film is far too early to try and do a fake ending. But I think we can all agree his biggest mistake was casting his brother in the lead role. Casey Affleck is not a leading man, and no matter how many times he crossed swords with his brother when they were kids, you can't let that shit skew your vision of the movie.
    BEN AFFLECK and AARON STOCKARD wrote the script and having never read the book on which this is based on I cannot say how true this film is to the source. What I can say is I liked the story in general and I thought the dialogue seemed very natural. I really think that Affleck's writing is actually one of his strong points, I mean the fucker won an Academy Award for that shit already, how many bad movies does he have to be in before he really starts focusing more on this side of his career? I guess a few more Gilgi's are needed.

THE VERDICT

    I actually enjoyed this movie, the story was solid and the acting was quite enjoyable, outside of the whole Casey Affleck debacle. While I can say this movie is definitely worth seeing, I have to be careful not over-rate this movie. Sometimes I can do that when I am expecting a movie to be shitty. If you want to see a good Boston crime drama that I can whole heartily endorse I would have to recommend The Departed.
 
 

RATING: B -

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