Affleck's Originality is Gone Baby Gone in His First Role as Director

In his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck has managed to make a film that is one part serious adult drama and two parts Law and Order: Special Oscars Unit.

The movie is adapted from a novel by Dennis Lehane, source author for Mystic River, and if this new film’s terrain of a Boston kidnapping feels familiar, that’s because it is: Clint Eastwood rolled the same ball all the way to six Academy Award nominations four years ago. Unfortunately, Affleck is no Eastwood­­—and the probability of a triumphant return to the Kodak Theater with this vehicle seems slim to nil.

The movie ultimately feels more like a promotional tie-in to the inevitable series of “For Your Consideration” ads than a film in itself. Casey Affleck stars as Patrick Kenzie, a private detective who specializes in missing persons investigations. With a voice that always sounds as if it’s on the brink of cracking, Affleck has carved himself a nice little market niche playing haunted men at a breaking point. His performance is perfectly fine here, but his brother simply doesn’t ask as much from him as director Andrew Dominik did recently for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The cast is rounded out by an on-target Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, who, at least as of late, hasn’t met a role he can’t phone in.

The story is diverting: a small, cute, blonde girl is kidnapped, but everyone connected to the abduction have their own reasons for why they don’t want her found. Affleck wants us to believe that somehow all of the plot twists amount to a mature discourse on moral ambiguity, but, trust me, you’ll have a much better time if you don’t look for depth. The material is elevated by a shock ending that teases the audience with the possibility of ethical murkiness before whitewashing over it with a George Bush-esque insistence on a dualistic worldview.

Ultimately, the acting is up to par, the dialogue is authentic-sounding, and the plot keeps you going—it’s nothing more or less than alright. Still, with the talent involved—and that includes more than just the cast, with the legendary Alan Ladd working as the producer—we should have been given something more. While Affleck certainly doesn’t embarrass himself here, it would be a lot easier for everyone involved to just stick to watching Law and Order reruns on television instead of baiting for Oscars.