Gone Baby Gone
Amy Ryan looked and sounded so convincing as a working-class Dorchester mom that a security guard mistook her for a fan on the first day of location filming and wouldn't let her on the set. One of the producers finally noticed her on the other side of one of the barricades and said she should be let through. The incident made Ryan twenty minutes late, but convinced her the Boston accent she'd prepared was realistic.,While Dottie talks to the press, she uses the word "vigual" when she means "vigil." This was because her lines were being fed to her by director Ben Affleck and she misheard this particular word. Affleck noticed her mistake but thought it sounded natural, and thus left it alone.,[first lines]
Patrick Kenzie: I always believed it was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are. Your city, your neighborhood, your family. People here take pride in these things, like it was something they'd accomplished. The bodies around their souls, the cities wrapped around those. I lived on this block my whole life; most of these people have. When your job is to find people who are missing, it helps to know where they started. I find the people who started in the cracks and then fell through. This city can be hard. When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. "You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves.",In the credits, Ben Affleck gives special thanks to Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, both members of the Boston Red Sox World Series championship teams of 2004 and 2007.,Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Gone Baby Gone/Things We Lost in the Fire/Rendition/Reservation Road/30 Days of Night/I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2007),You're Crazy
Written by Axl Rose, Slash (as Saul Hudson), Duff McKagan (as Michael McKagan),
Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler
Performed by Guns N' Roses
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises,"Gone Baby, Gone" is one of the best films of the year. It is being compared to "Mystic River" and "The Departed" because it takes place in Boston, but I actually liked it better than either of those films.

The opening credits start with the camera showing close ups of people's faces. The close ups are a recurring theme throughout the movie. It's because this is not just a film about a child kidnapping. It is a film about people and that is what lifts this film above so many others.

Director Ben Affleck shows confidence and style in his first film. After this, he does not need to perform in any more films. He is a much better writer and director than he is an actor.

All the performances in the film are superb. Casey Affleck has to carry the film and he does a great job. He is a stoic, deadpan, detective. But unlike the Noir detectives of the past, he is not a loner. He has a lot of friends and he has his girlfriend played by Michelle Monaghan help with the investigation. He uses his connections to find out things the police cannot.

Beyond that, the less you know the better.

If you like crime dramas that also work as character studies, you should run out and see "Gone Baby, Gone.",