Gone, Baby, Gone

It’s been 6 months since I’ve posted! Wow, time flies when you’ve got several plates spinning in the air at once, I suppose. My bad. My apologies for not keeping my resolve to write more often however my excuse has been at I haven’t seen or read anything in these last few months that has caught my attention or inspired me to write about books that have been turned into films. (It just also happens to be my birthday, so if that doesn’t inspire me, what in heavens will!) Until about two weeks ago when I happened upon this film that came out in 2007, Gone, Baby, Gone starring Casey Affleck (Yes, Ben’s brother). Perhaps you’ve seen it. Perhaps not. Or like me, you were late coming out of the gate and just never got around to seeing it in theaters or on DVD. The book is the same title and written by Dennis Lehane, a Boston native who sets most of his stories in and around Massachusetts, which also happens to be the same state that I grew up in. The other reason for blogging is that I happen to be reading another of his books, entitled, The Given Day. I also read Shutter Island and saw the film, but liked it less. So no forthcoming blog about it.

Now although I’ve seen the film, I still haven’t read the book but intend to. What I liked about this story is the philosophical study (from the audience’s p.o.v.) of a moral question/dilemma that most of us will never have to deal with, yet perhaps police officers deal with similar issues all the time. I don’t know. Without ruining the plot, let me lay it out for you in terms of what happens in the story. The following synopsis comes not from me, but really synthesizes the story without giving too much away.

*The story begins in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, where the gritty, working-class streets are lined with the wreckage of broken families and dreams. It is here that 4 year-old Amanda McCready has gone missing without a trace. The police have failed to turn up even the narrowest of leads, so Amanda’s desperate Aunt and Uncle plead with local private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Genarro (Michelle Monaghan) to take the case. Though they’re wary to jump in, Patrick and Angie know the neighborhood and they also know the truth about Amanda’s drug-addicted mother Helene (Amy Ryan). As they dig into her story, they find themselves on a trail that winds into the dark heart of Dorchester and through a chain of drug-dealers, ex-cons and child abusers, but brings them no closer to Amanda. In the glare of the media spotlight, they join forces with a relentless detective Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and police captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) — but just as it seems that the emotionally wrenching case is about to be cracked, in the flash of gunfire, the sad truth of Amanda’s fate is revealed.

As everyone attempts to move forward, a haunted Patrick cannot walk away. As he backtracks through the clues, he finds himself lured into an ever-intensifying web of lies and inexplicable violence, the shocking secret that hid truth and facing a moral dilemma that will leave him, and the audience, questioning what is right. *(http://www.tribute.ca/movies/Gone+Baby+Gone/13319)

There you have it. Once you’ve seen the film, the moral dilemma is made particularly clear and I, personally was left questioning this dilemma for many days afterward. Let me know what you think, folks. What would you do? Rent the DVD or read the story and get back to me.

Here’s a clip of the movie.

Watch, learn something and get back to me about what your impressions are about the moral dilemma and/or the movie itself, or even the novel if you’ve read it.

This is the word for today, on this, my birth date, Sept. 28th. Cheers!