Gone Baby Gone (2007) - A

"Gone Baby Gone" is Ben Affleck's directorial debut. It stars his brother Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan (the female lead in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") as two romantically involved private detectives (Patrick and Angie) who are called in to help investigate the kidnapping of a little girl because they are the kind of people who can talk to people who won't talk to the police. There is also a fine supporting cast with Morgan Freeman playing the head of the missing persons unit in the Philadelphia police force, and Ed Harris as the lead detective assigned to the case. Amy Ryan, who portrays the messed up mother of the kidnapped girl, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Naturally, as Patrick and Angie look into the case, they find that it is not as simple as it seems at first, and everyone seems to have a secret to hide. As the mystery unfolds, the characters keep being put in situations where you have to wonder what you would have done in their place. Patrick, especially, makes two gut wrenchingly difficult moral choices, and I found it quite interesting to talk to people after they had seen the movie about whether they agreed with his decisions.

I loved how the script doesn't feel the need to give any pretty answers to the various moral dilemmas or pass any judgments on the choices the characters made. Instead, it simply presents what the characters chose and the consequences. The actors and actresses do a great job of investing you emotionally in the characters, so even when you don't agree with the decisions they made, you can sympathize with their point of view. In the end, I found the seamless blending of a briskly paced mystery/thriller with a thinking movie about big moral questions to be highly enjoyable.

Final Grade: A