I think I’m one of the few people out there who felt bad for Ben Affleck when he was going through that two- to three-year period where it seemed that every single move he made was bad for his career. From dating Jennifer Lopez to churning out box office bombs like Surviving Christmas, Gigli, Paycheck, and Jersey Girl, Affleck went from Oscar-winning golden boy to tabloid fodder in record time.

But in the past couple of years, he’s chosen to stay out of the limelight as much as possible. He has only appeared in a few films, has been spending time with his family, and, more importantly, has decided to get behind the camera for a change. Gone Baby Gone represents Affleck’s directorial debut, and the positive critical response to the film made me want to see this in theaters. I did, and wasn’t disappointed.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Four-year-old Amanda McCready (played by Madeline O’Brien) was apparently abducted from her Boston home one night. Her mother Helene (Amy Ryan) and her aunt Beatrice (Amy Madigan) make impassioned pleas through the media for Amanda’s safe return. The cops assigned to the case are getting nowhere in their questioning of the neighborhood residents, so Beatrice and her husband Lionel (Titus Welliver) turn to private detectives instead.

Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his girlfriend/investigative partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are from the neighborhood and should be able to get answers out of the people who are refusing to talk to cops. As official representatives of the family, Kenzie and Gennaro are entitled to get details of the investigation that aren’t readily available to the general public. After reminding police chief Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) of this right, Kenzie and Gennaro are promised the full cooperation of lead detectives Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton).

During the course of the investigation Kenzie and Gennaro learn some disturbing things about Helene McCready. Far from being a caring mother, she’s little more than a cokehead and drug mule who often left Amanda home alone at night so she could go to the corner bar to hook up with her boyfriend Skinny Ray. Moreover, it turns out that Helene and Skinny Ray had recently stolen $130,000 from the drug dealer they made deliveries for, a guy named Cheese (Edi Gathegi).

Helene confesses about the money and tells the detectives where she hid it. After making their way to the spot, they find that Skinny Ray has been brutally tortured and murdered — likely by one of Cheese’s minions out looking for the dough. The detectives recover the hidden stash, and then set up a middle-of-the-night meeting to exchange the money for the little girl.

But all hell breaks loose during the exchange, and things don’t go as planned. From there, the storyline takes several surprising twists and turns while showing us what really happened to Amanda (and why) before wrapping things up with a thought-provoking conclusion.

My Reaction: I thought this was an incredibly well done film, and shows that Ben Affleck has an amazing amount of promise as a director. True, he didn’t take any chances or try anything innovative in Gone Baby Gone, but he did display a knack for being able to set a convincing scene and populate it with real people. “Gritty” is an adjective that has appeared over and over again in other reviews of this movie, and that’s really the right word for it. This is not a visually appealing film; it gets down and dirty — where it belongs.

I also liked the choice of Casey Affleck in the lead role of Patrick Kenzie. Sure, he doesn’t have the screen presence of big-name stars, but I think that’s precisely why he worked out so well. Patrick Kenzie was an everyman, not a hero. He was just a regular guy who didn’t know what he was getting into when he agreed to help with the Amanda McCready investigation. As such, the audience gave him a lot of leeway: he was allowed to be scared, allowed to make mistakes, and allowed to second-guess his actions — things you don’t expect a hero to do.

There were lots of twists in this film, none of which I could have ever predicted since I hadn’t read the Dennis Lehane novel beforehand. I welcome these types of surprises that keep me guessing, as long as they are logical and fit in with the story as a whole. The ones in Gone Baby Gone definitely adhered to those guidelines, so I was pleased with that aspect as well.

And finally, what a question to leave the audience with. Was Amanda better off with a mother that barely paid any attention to her or would she have been better off with the Doyles? Everyone was talking about that as they exited the theater, which was pretty cool. It was definitely a tough call, but for the record, I think Patrick made the right one.

Overall, I thought Gone Baby Gone was a very good film that actually deserves all the critical acclaim it has received thus far. I give it 4 stars out of 5 and recommend that you watch it!