John's Movie Musings

Nowadays, when I watch a movie, I try and think of things to talk about in these reviews. Halfway through Gone Baby Gone, I was ready to call it "so intense, I can never watch it a second time."

Ben Affleck's directorial debut is about child kidnappings. Not being a father, I don't have the same emotional reaction to these kinds of movies some of my friends have. They say that a man changes when he holds his child for the first time. Never is that more apparent to me than by talking to my child-rearing friends about these kinds of movies. These guys now tear up at a Lifetime movie (while I point and laugh). Seriously.

But watching the first half of Gone Baby Gone, I got a fun-size taste of those emotions surrounding the loss of a child. An hour into this, I was ready to crown Ben Affleck as the greatest director of the year. Then, an hour and a half into it, I remembered this was a Ben Affleck movie.

Now don't get me wrong, the movie is not terrible. The first half truly is brilliant, but the second half is a bad cliché. It's like Ben Affleck thought you were born yesterday and tried to pull a fast one. But in this day and age, these kinds of movies aren't the only game in town and bad endings stick out like a sore thumb.

Moving on...

I will give credit to Ben's bro, Casey. He plays the part of a Boston PI like he was born there. Oh right, he was. Anyway, he did a good job.

OK, so the ending is kind of lame (especially the morality question they throw at ya like a pie in the face), but this might be worth a rental. The first half is, anyway.

Grade: C+