Flounders On Film

Cheese, if you ever disrespect her again like that, I’m gonna pull your fuckin’ card, okay? So you’re saying you didn’t do it, fine. We’ll take your money, and we’ll be on our way. When it turns out you’re lying, I’m gonna spend every nickel of that money to fuck you up. I’m gonna bribe cops to go after you, I’m gonna pay guys to go after your weak fuckin’ crew, and I’m gonna tell all the guys I know that you’re a C.I. and a rat, and I know a lot of people. And after that, you’re gonna wish you listened to me, ’cause your shitty pool hall crime syndicate headquarters is gonna get raided, and your doped-up bitches are gonna get sent back to Laos, and this fuckin’ retard right here is gonna be testifying against you for a reduced sentence, while you’re gettin’ cornholed in your cell by a gang of crackers. ‘Cause from what I’ve heard, the guys that get sent up Concord for killing kids, life’s a motherfucker. – Patrick

One of the real lost (?) gems of the last few years is ‘Gone, Baby Gone’. I say lost, but it didn’t do badly at the box office and critics almost universally praised it. Sometimes, it must be said, those critics were in shock that Ben Affleck as co-writer and director could produce a film of this quality. So maybe not lost. But then sometimes, you just want a film shouted from the rooftops. Yes, last year it’s no wonder ‘No Country for Old Men’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’ took all the plaudits, but Affleck’s film should’ve earned more than a measly Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars.

Firstly, Affleck and his brother Casey (in the lead role of Patrick) cannot be praised enough. It’s only when people have that telepathic understanding of each other and their surroundings (the Boston where they grew up) that you get that certain magic that goes beyond plot and character to give you…atmosphere. The streets and neighbourhoods are not sets and they are definitely not ‘Desperate Housewives’-style picture perfect suburbs. They are the places people actually live and the communities that they live in. This gives an indefinable feeling to the film that makes everything that bit more real, even when events become slightly more unlikely.    

Yes, the final twist is a little far-fetched but it sets up such a brutal dilemma for our hero that it can easily be forgiven. The film is not only about this dilemma but you can see how the entire film has been building to it, refusing t give an easy answer. This applies even more on second and third viewings, once we know how the plot will play out and we can just sit back and enjoy the characters, the mood and the dialogue. But I wouldn’t want to over-criticise the plot at all as it works brilliantly as a thriller and even has some great action. I say action like ‘The Departed’ has action, not like ‘Die Hard 4.0’ has action. Patrick not backing down to a bunch of thugs in a bar was probably when I knew I was going to love this film.  

Remy: How well do you know “Cheese” Jean Baptiste?

Helene: Who? Sounds familiar.

Remy: No. It don’t “sound familiar”, Helene. He’s a violent sociopathic Haitain criminal named Cheese. Either you know him or you don’t.

Casey Affleck is ridiculously cool in the lead role and an instant hero of mine. He’s scruffy, looks too young for his job as a Private Detective and is unsure of himself. He’s also smart, quick, tough and determined not to let anyone get one over on him or ever disrespect him. Michelle Monaghan is slightly less successful as his partner in business and at home. She’s a good actress (and suits ‘Mission Impossible 3’ down to a tee) but she’s maybe just a bit too beautiful and glamorous for a film where everyone looks ‘real’, i.e. rough. Morgan Freeman has an easy job (for him) as the moral, rock-solid Police Chief (he could phone this in, but doesn’t) and Amy Ryan, from ‘The Wire’, deservedly received the Oscar nomination as the skanky, horrendous mother of the kidnapped child that launches the plot. She’s convincingly awful; hateful and hateable. The real standout in the supporting cast for me is Ed Harris as Remy. Harris is so regularly excellent in films that he’s easy to overlook but here he’s given a complex role that plays with audience sympathies throughout and is damn cool. He could’ve easily been on the Oscar list and he gets the best scene in the film, sat with Casey Affleck outside the hospital with a bottle of liqueur in his hand. He’s very scary here.  

I won’t give too much away plot-wise as it’s best to discover these things for yourselves, but really, it’s the flavour and texture of the film that makes it one of my (fairly) recent favourites. You can almost smell the neighbourhood. There’s a sea of jealousies, loyalties, bad blood and secrets that runs through the community and, by the end, Patrick probably wishes he’d never started. That sense of reality and the brilliant acting make it a film to return to again and again. It’s easily in the top 5 films of 2008 and puts Ben Affleck right at the top of the list of promising writer-directors in Hollywoodland. Let’s hope he doesn’t leave it too long for his next project.