‘Gone Baby Gone’ proof of skills not evident in Affleck’s earlier work

In theaters

GONE BABY GONE, directed by Ben Affleck, written by Affleck and Aaron Stockard, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, 115 minutes, rated R.

After seeing Ben Affleck’s solid directorial debut in “Gone Baby Gone,” maybe it’s time to suggest that the actor give up his day job and turn to writing and directing full time. If this movie is any indication, he could make a serious go of it.

What Affleck has on his hands with “Gone” isn’t at all what one would expect from the star of so many modern-day bombs – “Pearl Harbor,” “Surviving Christmas,” “Jersey Girl,” “Paycheck,” “Daredevil” and the infamous “Gigli” chief among them. Sure, “Hollywoodland” offered a brief escape from all that dreck, but then came “Smokin’ Aces,” and it seemed as if Affleck’s career had gone up in smoke again.

Not so with “Gone Baby Gone,” which is, in fact, a mature, engrossing drama that features a script that bests his Academy Award-winning screenplay for “Good Will Hunting,” which he co-wrote with friend Matt Damon.

Whereas that film was shot through with sentimental overtones, “Gone” brings the world into more base, disturbing focus, with Affleck and cinematographer John Toll working hard to capture a working-class section of Boston that reeks of havoc, desperation, drug use and danger.

The film stars Affleck’s brother Casey as Patrick Kenzie, a private investigator living with his girlfriend and business partner Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) in Dorchester, Mass., when into their lives comes a business opportunity in the wake of a 4-year-old girl’s abduction that has caused a local sensation.

Though the girl’s cocaine- and heroin-addicted mother (Amy Ryan) has all but shut down, her brother (Titus Welliver) and sister-in-law (Amy Madigan) want that baby back, and they’re willing to pay for outsiders to glean the sort of inside information they know the locals won’t share with the police.

Angie doesn’t want to take the job – she knows it will become emotionally consuming – but one look at a photo of the kidnapped girl nevertheless convinces her to agree.

Soon, each is on the case, which means working the living rooms, backrooms and sleazy bars in the surrounding area. The police aren’t happy about it, but Patrick and Angie push forward, doing their best to navigate the icy head of the missing persons unit (Morgan Freeman) and two sketchy detectives (Ed Harris, John Ashton), while trying to obtain information from the difficult denizens of Dorchester themselves, who in this movie are as hard-core as they come.

Beyond the performances, which uniformly are excellent, and the way the movie hooks into a noirish series of twists and surprises toward the end, what’s so satisfying about Affleck’s film is how authentic it feels.

The director knows this neighborhood – he grew up not far from it – and he doesn’t cheat it by making it something it isn’t. In this way, he recalls something of a young Spike Lee. He isn’t afraid to come home and tell the truth about these people in ways that nobody will mistake for flattery, particularly when he allows his characters to open their mouths and speak, which reveals, shall we say, a slightly cruder side of humanity.

Going there takes respect for a place and its people, but it also takes guts, which – when Affleck isn’t spilling them on the floor as the investigation mounts – the director proves he has in spades.

Grade: B+

On DVD, HD DVD

A MIGHTY HEART, directed by Michael Winterbottom, written by John Orloff from Mariane Pearl’s memoir, 100 minutes, rated R.

Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart” stars Angelina Jolie in a performance that reminds us that the longtime tabloid fixture is more than just the Third World’s Santa Angelina, Brad Pitt’s main squeeze and, to some, a serial adopter of children.

She’s a woman who can act, and while she hasn’t done much of that since winning the Academy Award for 1999’s “Girl, Interrupted,” that she does so here helps to atone for a number of sins – though not her movie “Original Sin.”

Here, the actress portrays the pregnant journalist Mariane Pearl, who in 2002 was in Karachi, Pakistan, with her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (Dan Futterman), to investigate shoe bomber Richard Reid through an interview with an elusive source. What ensued was a weeks-long nightmare when Danny was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and then, after a formidable effort to save him, beheaded on videotape.

As with any devastating, real-life story whose outcome is well-known going into it, Jolie, Winterbottom and screenwriter John Orloff had a challenge ahead of them, and they met it with respect, strength and subtlety.

In lesser hands, “A Mighty Heart” could have collapsed into a ripe pool of sentiment, but not so here. With the exception of a brutal and well-earned scene of uncontainable grief, which is so beautifully handled by Jolie that it alone might win her an Academy Award nomination, “A Mighty Heart” looks at the world and the Pearls’ situation through the eyes of a journalist. It doesn’t wince, it doesn’t exploit – it just observes, which is enough.

Peter Christelis’ quick-cut editing and Marcel Zyskind’s whiplash cinematography only serve to heighten the moment. Backed by the grimy chaos of Karachi, with its teeming throngs of people and commerce bearing down on a city that no longer can contain them, each assists the film in keeping audiences reasonably distracted from an outcome that eventually must come: Pearl’s death.

Leading up to it, Jolie holds her body inward, fixating on the news as it leaks in, while Winterbottom gives us only glimpses into her and Danny’s life together before this event worked to undo it. The flashbacks are the film at its weakest – they’re too beatific – but for so many other reasons, namely Jolie’s excellent performance, it’s easy to move beyond them as Winterbottom hurtles us straight into the dark heart of madness.

Grade: A-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@

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