“Gone Baby Gone”



This is a very, very disturbing movie to watch, and I’ll be honest, I could barely finish it. First of all, the language was shocking and not something I enjoy being exposed to. Of course, the film is not meant to depict pleasing circumstances, and the language may be necessary for an accurate portrayal of the plot. But still, I can’t believe there wasn’t some other way to present the plot than by wrapping it up in language so shocking, so vulgar, that it would probably shock even the most street-worn individual.

This is the story of a four-year-old child who turns up missing in the community of Dorchester, which happens to be one of the toughest neighbourhoods in all of Boston. Two private investigators, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are assigned to work the case and to hopefully recover the child before she is killed.

The film presents vivid details of what the child goes through at the hands of her abductors, and this footage, too, was very, very disturbing to watch. True, I realize this sort of thing happens in our society, but that doesn’t mean I want to bring it into my living room in all its sordid glory.

The case turns out to be far more complicated that the investigators ever imagined, and they are placed into some far more dangerous situations than they would have anticipated. Eventually they locate the child and then return her to her mother, another decision that disturbed me.

This is probably a good film, and it did win an Oscar nomination for Amy Ryan’s role. But I still can’t say that I enjoyed it, and I certainly wouldn’t watch it again.

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