Gone Baby Gone

Did he make the right choice or not? That is the question I have been asking myself after watching "Gone Baby Gone." If you are reading this, you have probably read my previous reviews (for lack of a better word) and know that I'm not about retelling plot. The little girl named Amanda is abducted, there is a search and no one finds her, Patrick (Casey Affleck) is the only one who still cares, and he eventually finds the girl under the care and protection of a retired cop who organized a heist to extract the girl from her destructive home life with her neglectful mother. Patrick has a choice--does he leave the girl with the cop, who will make sure that she has a proper, healthy childhood and will most likely put her on the road to having a normal life; or does he give the girl back to her mother, a woman addicted to drugs and alcohol who seemingly doesn't care for her daughter at all. He returns the girl to her mother did he make the right choice?

For a directorial debut, I'd say that Ben Affleck did an outstanding job with this piece. For me, it covers over his stale acting performances in sub-par films as an atonement for those sins. His brother Casey equally handles the pressure of the lead role with skill--he communicated anger, confusion, and uncertainty (among other things) in a way that didn't feel forced or overdone. For example, in one scene, Patrick is questioning if he handled the situation with a child-molester correctly, if killing the man was right. He says "murder is a sin." Police officer Remy Bressant (played by Ed Harris) replies that "it depends on who you do it to." But Patrick, unconvinced, responds "it doesn't work that way." Patrick has a strong inner conscience that provokes him to do what is right, even if it means risking his life, his girlfriend, or whatever else.

This is why Patrick has the girl returned to her mother. Yes, Amanda probably would have had a better life with Doyle, but the basic truth is she was stolen. She was taken from her home without consent. To Patrick, that is stealing. And stealing can't be justified, no matter how nice the birthday parties will be, or how fancy the car she is given, or even how much love she will receive. For Patrick, doing what's best does not outweigh doing what's right. That's hard for my brain to differentiate.

So what does this say about social services? What does this say about foster care and child support and all the other ways children are taken care of when their original family falls apart? Every other character in the film believed that returning the girl back to her mother would only put her in a detrimental situation; none of them believed that the mother would (or could, for that matter) change her lifestyle for the sake of Amanda. I wonder if Patrick did. I know he hoped she would. But in the final scene, as Helene rushes out for a date and Patrick is left watching over Amanda, Helene is still drinking, the apartment is still a mess (but looking better), it doesn't seem like Helene has changed her ways. When Patrick first walks in, it does; the apartment looks clean and Helene is dressed in nice clothes with her hair done. But then, piles of clothes are seen and the coffee table is a mess. I don't know if we are supposed to see change or not. I don't think Patrick knows either. So he is left wondering if he made the right decision as Amanda watches TV, and outside, somewhere more children are in the position she was in, and the world spins madly on.