Gone Baby Gone

Director: Ben Affleck
Screenwriters: Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Amy Ryan, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman
Running Time: 114 mins
Certificate: 15

It is easy to forget that Ben Affleck has a top-class filmmaking pedigree. An Oscar winner at 25 with Matt Damon for his Good Will Hunting script, his tabloid over-exposure, culminating in the "Bennifer" debacle, almost killed his career. Gone Baby Gone, which sees him move behind the camera, will revive it.

Based on a novel by Denis Lehane, a writer mined for the equally bleak Mystic River, Affleck and co-scribe Aaron Stockard's film follows private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Genarro (Michelle Monaghan) as they search the downtrodden neighbourhoods of Boston for missing toddler Amanda McCready.

Finding resistance from Amanda's negligent, drug addict mother Helene (Amy Ryan) - described by her sister-in-law as "an abomination" - and local police officers Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), the couple find themselves dragged into Boston's seedy criminal underbelly. After uncovering a drug deal gone bad, a tense encounter with local kingpin Cheese yields a breakthrough that ends tragically.

With hope of finding Amanda alive all but lost, Patrick continues to be troubled by the case. As he ventures deeper into the world of dealers, addicts and child abusers, Angie, becoming appalled by both Patrick's obsession and the unpleasantness of her hometown, begins to pull away from him.

Intriguingly, Gone Baby Gone plays out as two films compressed into one. The initial search for Amanda, a self-contained story, is resolved sharply, leaving you scratching your head at the prospect of a film ending after an hour. What seems like a closing voiceover from Patrick is actually a bridge to part two. It's unusual and refreshing to see a film that so clearly breaks from conventional three-act Hollywood storytelling.

Affleck steers through the dense plot with economy of direction; there's no frenzied editing, no desire to dazzle with complex camerawork - he trusts his cast, knows that measured direction will serve them, the story and the audience better than indulgent visual flourishes.

Despite carrying the film, Patrick and Angie are almost blank slates compared to the more fleshed out Helene and Bressant. The youthful detectives act as the audience's vessels into the film - the more time Patrick and Angie spend with the monstrous mother (Amy Ryan, fully deserving her Oscar nomination) and shady cop (Ed Harris, robbed of one), the more they, and we, connect and empathise with the pair, peeling away their tough exteriors to reveal dark secrets and vulnerabilities.

His first time out as a leading man, Casey Affleck shows quiet strength and intensity. His character is desperate to find Amanda and give the story - strikingly close to Madeleine McCann's - a happy ending. Ultimately, Patrick is confronted with a devastating moral dilemma, knowing full well that his determination to uphold his beliefs could mean sacrificing his future with Angie. Whether or not the conclusion can be classed as a happy one is very much up to the individual viewer.

By shooting in an impoverished Boston community with locals as extras, the film has a gritty, textured feel. The sense of urban despair, the portrayal of the American underclass has an authenticity more in common with TV's The Wire than any recent cinematic offering.

Relentlessly grim as it may be, Gone Baby Gone is a thriller that packs a punch with every plot turn. Rich in character and atmosphere and featuring a cast on top form, it's A-grade grown-up entertainment. A smart, gripping alternative to a summer of explosion-laden blockbusters and Manolos. As an actor, Ben Affleck might be a supporting player trapped in a leading man's body, but as a filmmaker he's an auspicious talent.