Once upon a time, Ben Affleck was the golden boy of Hollywood. But eventually, he committed two seemingly unforgivable acts. He married J-Lo; and, then, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, he made Armageddon (Matt Damon started to look comparatively credible). The critics, however, have now started to forgive Affleck, en masse, for his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone: a crime thriller, adapted from the novel by Denis Lehane of Mystic River fame - the author of choice, it would seem, for actors crossing over to serious directing.

 

It tells the story of the disappearance of Amanda McCready, a little girl snatched from the ghettos of Boston, while her mother is snorting cocaine at the local hole in the wall. Frustrated by police efforts, the girl's aunt, Bea McCready, calls upon the investigative skills of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro, a private eye partnership that extends to beneath the sheets. Bea is convinced that Patrick, who grew up in the same neighbourhood, will have better luck infiltrating the tight-knit community, and uncovering the answers that will lead to finding her niece.

 

This unfolds rather like a two hour special of Law & Order SVU - I couldn't help but wonder if Olivia Benson would have done a better job at finding the missing girl - nor could I help from wondering what, exactly, has hypnotised the critics. It's not a bad film, as such - it's just nothing spectacular, and compared to Eastwood's Mystic River, it's mostly a thin exercise in mainstream crime drama.

However, things get complicated, as the plot devices kick in, and the mystery twists, twists some more, and, why not, twists again. It's a fairly run-of-the-mill, "Everybody was in on it", scenario - though lovers of the genre will no doubt expect nothing less. But what happens, in this process, is the so-called "moral ambiguity" that has got everybody talking (a term handed to us by the film's PR, no less, and repeated, many times, through the official press kit), as the film poses some rather difficult questions of the role of biological parenting versus what may, or may not be, better for a child's future. It got America rather fired up, upon the film's release, and with the Indigenous Intervention still one of this country's more recent "moral ambiguities", it will no doubt make for some interesting table-talk, here.

In this way, by the film's close, you have to hand it to Gone Baby Gone - an initially ordinary premise that manages to linger in the conscience - all be it, for less time than many other, better crafted films with moral confounds at their core.  Although, I'm not convinced that the film poses its question without its own opinion - and this sat just as uncomfortable with me, as the question itself. Unfortunately, however, to go into the finer details of this dynamic would require me to give the ending away - and I'll give the film enough respect not to do that. But I can't help but wonder if Affleck gave similar respect to the working class he has used as the context of his moral ambiguities, or if they are simply the victims of a screenplay with a clear sociopolitical agenda. Having come from a similar background, I found its depiction nearing some hard truths, but ultimately resulting in a gross exaggeration - at very least, a generalisation - that I'm not sure is right for the middle class audiences this film is targeting. Some of the characters come off as nothing short of caricatures, and the film never bothers to explore the myriad of social issues beneath working class environments; choosing, instead, to use them as a kind of film noir backdrop of a morally bankrupt setting. This facilitates much of the film's relatively cheap thrills, but I'm not sure does much justice to the society it uses to do so.

Aside from this, Affleck does a good job with the genre that has made a recent revival through American television, and as a debut, it can be presumed that a rather successful career will lay ahead, suggesting that - despite popular belief - there is life after J-Lo. The performances are also stellar - in particular, Amy Madigan, who plays the missing girl's Aunt, and Amy Ryan as Amanda's mother - whose screen time allows her to extend her character beyond the cliches of many who surround her. Keeping it in the family, Ben gives the starring role to little brother, Casey, who is actually better in front of the camera than his older brother, suggesting that perhaps the Brothers Affleck have got the dynamic right in this pairing. The only compromising casting is Morgan Freeman, whose one trick pony is looking a little tired, and who comes off as only heightening the sense of formulation. Freeman just feels so Hollywood - and despite it trying very hard to be something else, that's what this film ultimately is.

And that's probably the best way to treat Gone Baby Gone. It's a bit of grown-up talk with your popcorn; but it is, nonetheless, grown up talk that will happen, for many, in the McDonalds outside the multiplexes. And though I'm certainly partial to a bit of noir, this is ultimately just a crime thriller - not my cup of tea - and for those who live for this genre, this is still one of the better examples. It also has some genuinely suspenseful action sequences, and for the most part, these are adequately entertaining. I'm not prepared to herald Affleck as a great director. But I've almost forgotten Armageddon. Almost.