Gone Baby Gone

Viewer Rating:Ailbhe has rated Gone Baby Gone rating: 3 Star

Firstly when you rent a DVD of a 5 star scoring movie, the expectations are set very high, which was probably the sewing of the but - seed. Other earlier reviewers would have approached this movie with very poor aspirations for its director, which is why I think they ended up raving about it. On all counts its a good, even a very good movie. Gritty, realistic, unglamorised streetwise look at a crime in an area where crime is part of the way of life. For me though, the timing was way off. True, the plot unfolded in three or four stages, but it seemed to do it in lurches rather than more naturally. The film genuinely seemed almost finished at one dramatic point, we were just about waiting for the credits and off it shot again in another direction. It did this two or three times, yet seemed to lose its momentum. Equally the denoument was utterly unrealistic. True it raised some deep philosophical questions about true right and wrong and maybe that is where the film resonates. True it provided a twist at the end. Yet, for such a grittily pitched street movie, this twist was the stuff of fairy tales. Granted a fairy tale that didn't work out.

Review published on the 08 September 2008 13:09