Gone Baby Gone

I grew up just outside of Boston. Boston is one of few places in the U.S. where people are from a very definite area, and you can hear it in their accent. New York may be like that too–certainly there are distinctive patterns of speech in Brooklyn and Queens–and not doubt a few places in the south, but in most parts of the U.S. people are from everywhere.

I recently saw Gone Baby Gone, and it does a great job of showing this. It was directed by Ben Affleck, who of course also grew up just outside of Boston. The movie was always set precisely where it was set, as opposed to some other movies which only used Boston as a stage (e.g., Blown Away, or Fever Pitch for all that it was centered on the Red Sox).

I thought Gone Baby Gone was a great movie for that alone. As a straight movie, I found it gripping and emotional but, in the end, overplotted. But the setting was really note perfect.

Also the supporting actors were excellent. The star, Casey Affleck, did a good job, but he always seemed to be what he was: a guy from Cambridge acting like a guy from Dorchester. Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman didn’t pretend to be from Boston, and the movie took the trouble to explain that. Michelle Monaghan’s background was never explained; I foune it unclear what she was doing there at all. But the supporting characters to be very well done.

Amy Ryan in particular was perfect. She really didn’t seem to be acting at all. She simply was a woman from Dorchester (though looking her up I see that she is actually from Queens). That was the most impressed I’ve been by an actor since Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardener–although there he was obviously acting, albeit very well.