Market Decline MoviesTM: Gone Baby Gone
Scratched and smudged, ill-used and reflective of bulk purchases made without the consumer in mind, DVDs available at public libraries remind us of the state of the world economy. Market Decline Movies gives us an accurate reading of the mood of the nation via its free two-day rentals.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus Welliver
Directed by Ben Affleck
Amy Ryan, though born in Brooklyn, is note-perfect astounding as the pathetic, pleasure-seeking brute Masshole mother of a kidnaped girl in Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his brother, Casey, as a private dick on the streets of Boston.
Characters in GBG are less believable than the other Boston-area adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel, Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. There is a suspension of disbelief the audience must embrace before accepting the young detective's career choice (though green, he outmaneuvers career cops by knowing the streets) and Amy Madigan's accent is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever changed planes at Logan. Furthermore, a low-rent drug kingpin who acts as a red herring in the movie is utterly out of place, despite supplying the title.
But perhaps Madigan made the cut as a barren, self-righteous sister in-law to Ryan as a package deal with Ed Harris, Madigan's real-life husband who plays a crooked cop in the movie. Her accent is reminiscent of that of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Now you're thinking, "Ben Affleck only wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting - he couldn't have been expected to act as Mork's dialogue coach, too." But Madigan's accent is all the more egregious because it is the lone bad example in a very deep, rich, and faithful cast of superb Bostonian characterizations.
(There is a history of Hollywood carpetbagging its Massachusetts accents: Let us not forget Jack Nicholson in The Departed, more southern Connecticut than Southie. But Ryan shares my vote for most compelling Masachusetts accent with Harold Rusell's Worcester-bred amputee in The Best Years of Our Lives.)
As the movie progresses, certain things fall into place. We see why the police at first grudgingly welcome young Affleck's involvement, because they think he's a lightweight who won't get to the real answers. And the real answers are as close to the heart of Boston's class struggle and color-awkward hierarchy of privilege than any film depiction of the city.
The real victim of this movie is Michelle Monaghan. In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, she sparkled. Here she isn't given much of an opportunity to shine. In fact, Monaghan is to Gone Baby Gone what Amy Ryan was to Dan in Real Life - an actress not allowed to show her stuff.
As accurate and flawed a depiction of Boston as The Departed, as full of twists as a drive through the North End, as filled with moral ambiguity as James Michael Curley's election from jail, Gone Baby Gone is a glorious debut.
How it reflects the economy: Wealth transcends racial lines every time, so if you are a childless bi-racial couple who can afford property in the Berkshires, you have what it takes to steal a white child and make a major metropolitan police department do your bidding.
Buy Gone Baby Gone.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan, Amy Madigan, Titus WelliverDirected by Ben Affleck
Amy Ryan, though born in Brooklyn, is note-perfect astounding as the pathetic, pleasure-seeking brute Masshole mother of a kidnaped girl in Ben Affleck's directorial debut starring his brother, Casey, as a private dick on the streets of Boston.
Characters in GBG are less believable than the other Boston-area adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel, Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. There is a suspension of disbelief the audience must embrace before accepting the young detective's career choice (though green, he outmaneuvers career cops by knowing the streets) and Amy Madigan's accent is a slap in the face to anyone who has ever changed planes at Logan. Furthermore, a low-rent drug kingpin who acts as a red herring in the movie is utterly out of place, despite supplying the title.
But perhaps Madigan made the cut as a barren, self-righteous sister in-law to Ryan as a package deal with Ed Harris, Madigan's real-life husband who plays a crooked cop in the movie. Her accent is reminiscent of that of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Now you're thinking, "Ben Affleck only wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting - he couldn't have been expected to act as Mork's dialogue coach, too." But Madigan's accent is all the more egregious because it is the lone bad example in a very deep, rich, and faithful cast of superb Bostonian characterizations.
(There is a history of Hollywood carpetbagging its Massachusetts accents: Let us not forget Jack Nicholson in The Departed, more southern Connecticut than Southie. But Ryan shares my vote for most compelling Masachusetts accent with Harold Rusell's Worcester-bred amputee in The Best Years of Our Lives.)
As the movie progresses, certain things fall into place. We see why the police at first grudgingly welcome young Affleck's involvement, because they think he's a lightweight who won't get to the real answers. And the real answers are as close to the heart of Boston's class struggle and color-awkward hierarchy of privilege than any film depiction of the city.
The real victim of this movie is Michelle Monaghan. In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, she sparkled. Here she isn't given much of an opportunity to shine. In fact, Monaghan is to Gone Baby Gone what Amy Ryan was to Dan in Real Life - an actress not allowed to show her stuff.
As accurate and flawed a depiction of Boston as The Departed, as full of twists as a drive through the North End, as filled with moral ambiguity as James Michael Curley's election from jail, Gone Baby Gone is a glorious debut.
How it reflects the economy: Wealth transcends racial lines every time, so if you are a childless bi-racial couple who can afford property in the Berkshires, you have what it takes to steal a white child and make a major metropolitan police department do your bidding.
Buy Gone Baby Gone.
Labels: Amy Madigan, Amy Ryan, ben affleck, Casey Affleck, Ed Harris, John Ashton, MDM, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Titus Welliver
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home