The good thing...

[erastes]

...about forcing oneself to go to the cinema every week even if there's not anything on that you really really fancy seeing is that sometimes you go and see something that you wouldn't have gone to see and today was one of those days.

Went to see "Gone Baby Gone" which I'd seen the trailer for and thought "oo - that looks a bit too intense" but shit it was absolutely worth the view.  I'm fond of Ben Affleck as an actor, but he's not great, but he's obviously got a flair for directing - either that or his casting crew are the best ever.  It's a very harrowing film but not as bleak as you might think. Yes, there are some truly horrific parts, but they are sensitively filmed - I don't think that one should gloss over the fact that children are taken and killed by pedos - and this absolutely gets the balance spot on.

The actors are tremendous. I didn't know any of them other than Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris but the trailer-trash style families are incredibly well portrayed, and the sense of the community is very convincing.   And I thought Boston was a nice place.  It has more twists and turns than a slug on salt, and several times I thought it had ended, and it actually hadn't.  All this without one car chase or a massive explosion. Truly.

Highly recommended but you have to be in the mood for a gritty drama.  I don't often - with modern directors - seek out work by specific directors, but in Affleck's case I may make an exception.  His brother Casey was good, and in one scene he's startlingly good but it's not maintained throughout. His girlfriend - well frankly I didn't see the POINT of her at all, she could have been dispensed with. The incredible performances come from Bee, the sister in law of the mother with the missing kid, the brother and the Haitian. And others, but you'll have to see it to make your choices.

If I have one gripe it's that, either I'm going deaf, or the dialogue was so street I, as a Brit, found it difficult to follow. There were point where I caught only half the dialogue.

But still, I did like it.

Comments

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

All the bit parts were played by "normal" people from Boston. By that I mean not actors. I saw Ben somewhere talking about the one lady who is on the news being interviewed couldn't make it to the premiere of the movie because she had been arrested for drunk and disorderly.

I think he has a real future as a director, imo. His brother Casey is an excellent actor.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well that explains why it feels so very real. It was inspired. It's one of those films that will keep me thinking about it for a long time.

[schmoo999.livejournal.com]

Also I don't think you are going deaf, I always a problem at times with a Bostonian accent. I remember watching The Departed and sometimes being a bit huh? lol. And some of it was very "street".
I have a boring easy to understand midwestern accent. :D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Subtitles would have been nice....

[dakotaflint.livejournal.com]

If I have one gripe it's that, either I'm going deaf, or the dialogue was so street I, as a Brit, found it difficult to follow. There were point where I caught only half the dialogue.

I really enjoyed this movie as well, but even I had a hard time deciphering what they were saying at points and had to get my roommate (a native Bostonian) to translate certain parts. It felt authentic, but it was definitely hard to understand.

[shiawmeimei.livejournal.com]

If I have one gripe it's that, either I'm going deaf, or the dialogue was so street I, as a Brit, found it difficult to follow. There were point where I caught only half the dialogue.

LOL I watch BBC America with the closed captioning on so I don't miss parts of the dialogue!

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

This exact theme is why my paranormal suspense novel Mercykill: Killers got the most cautionary content rating my publisher has, so this sounds like a film I'll have to see.