While this movie came seven years after Gone in 60 Seconds and seven before Gone Girl, I couldn't have told you which was which. It was high time I saw one of them. I ruled out Gi60S for not being popular enough. Both GBG and GG involve Ben Affleck, but only GBG has him as director, and he seems less of a gamble than David Fincher.
The heroes are a pair of mainstays in Dennis Lehane's novels: Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and, with less focus, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). When a little girl gets kidnapped, her aunt hires the two private eyes, against the recommendation of the police captain (Morgan Freeman). Their main advantage is that Patrick knows almost everybody in the Boston slum, allowing him connections the cops wouldn't have. They still do some work with police detectives (Ed Harris and John Ashton), but with too much disagreement.
Boy, does Ben have a thing for Boston. I gathered as much from Good Will Hunting and The Town, but GBG lays it on thickest of all. He insisted on authentic Bostonians for all minor roles, and I suspect that at least all the outdoor scenes were shot in Boston (I recognized the cemetery). This means, among other things, that you'll have to get used to the accent, especially with Patrick nearly mumbling half the time.
Alas, it doesn't make me want to pay another visit. The bleak atmosphere is unrelenting from start to finish. Nearly every character on screen is corrupt and/or impoverished. Patrick describes one character who tries to appear good as "just like everyone else," meaning criminal. There might be even more swearing than in GWH.
Yeah, not a good environment for bringing up a kid. At its best, the film encourages us to think hard about whether it would be better not to return her to her half-loving but irresponsible druggie mom (Amy Ryan, the most convincing fake Bostonian).
If the above sounds a little spoilery to you, let me assure you that GBG repeatedly moves in directions I hadn't predicted. When it didn't utterly surprise me, at least I hadn't been certain what would happen. I won't say that Patrick and Angie make impressive detectives by fiction standards, but neither is the audience likely to figure things out before they do, except insofar as the runtime (114 minutes) indicates when the case is far from closed.
I'll tell you this much for the sake of a warning: Not every child in the story comes out OK. Yes, there's more than one.
In the end, Patrick seems to be wondering how to feel. The same goes for me. It's mostly skilled, but how well should I enjoy it?
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