Gone Baby Gone

A disturbing, intelligent thriller with a provocative theme and an even more provocative climax, which pits law and justice against each other, i.e., the criminal code and morality. It even explores the boundaries of ethical behavior by relativizing the concepts of good and evil. Its characters are not black and white and are also exposed to extreme situations that require truly fundamental and difficult decisions. The clever script has several significant twists in the perspective of the characters and their actions, and the film can be watched not only as a brilliant detective story but also as an excellent psychological drama. Moreover, the film is brilliantly cast and professionally directed and acted. I have absolutely no problem giving it five stars. Overall impression: 95%. (2011-06-14)

Without a final twist and uncompromisingly leaving the question “What is right?”, it would only have been a thriller with brilliant direction and performances, but with that Gone Baby Gone becomes an exceptionally intense experience and a superb drama. But is the answer to that question really that hard? Not for me. (2008-07-28)

Bad Baby Bad. Disappointing in every way! The story is confusing and disjointed. Ben Affleck directs as much as he acts: like a teenager with attention deficit disorder. The characters were uninteresting, unmotivated and poorly cast. The dialogue lacked drive, it was clichéd and incomprehensible. Overall, I found this film very boring to the point of absurdity. It lacked suspense and atmosphere. There was almost nothing positive here! Affleck has picked up the wrong profession. I didn't enjoy it. 40%. (2014-01-19)

It was "only" a good film until the final reveal, but then it became a great film, one of those that really makes you think about how you would have acted yourself. And that's valuable these days. I love Dennis Lehane's books and it's a good thing that this one I couldn't get hold of for so long and unlike Mystic River or Shutter Island I hadn't read it before the film. My surprise and my experience were all the greater. I think Morgan Freeman gave one of his best performances ever in a relatively small space. (2015-03-15)

A quality film for one evening. It's not an Oscar-worthy masterpiece, nor a film that you could watch twenty times and still discover something new, it's ordinary, austere, technically simple, and quite effective in certain moments. But the storyline isn't that elaborate, and many things can be guessed from the course of the film. Above all, Ed Harris is outstanding. The ending didn't deliver the catharsis I expected, but it has a logical culmination. Ben Affleck is definitely better behind the camera than in front of it, and I think that has surprised many film fans, especially since it's his directorial debut. (2008-08-10)