ongoing

There's a lot of good things to report about Ben Affleck's directing debut, his take on Dennis Lehane's "Gone Baby Gone," but no one is going to say "feel-good movie of the season" or anything like that. It's the first movie to be made about two of Lehane's serial detective team Patrick Kenzie (played by Ben's younger bro Casey) and Angie Genarro (Michelle Monaghan). And it's one of the rare movies to capture the underside of Boston. This isn't Newbury street and art galleries; this is Dorchester, with some Southie, Roxbury, Everett and Chelsea. This is set in working class or lower class enclaves. This is a abduction story that looks simple: Amanda, the three-year old daughter of a single, self-centered, self-medicated mother goes missing. We soon learn that it appears a major drug dealer has done the deed, because the mother - working as a mule for him - and her scumbag boyfriend have scammed $130,000 from said dealer. He wants his cash. So, it'll be tit for tat: Return the baby, get the money. But, he swears he didn't take the kid, and, maybe he didn't. Kenzie and Genarro are hired by the daughter's aunt - private detectives who augment the police, but are closer to the street.

 The plot gets more complicated as a detective played by Ed Harris reveals he is willing to bend a few rules to achieve "justice." Other characters - like the Boston police honcho played by Morgan Freeman (in photo) - have their motives to be in on this, too. To reveal more of the plot would be criminal. This is one you want to watch play out to see if you can predict who the good guys and bad guys are - and if Amanda is dead or just abducted. And, at the end of it, you'll be wondering about what good and bad are, whose morals are right. "Gone Baby Gone" is a gritty film, taken from a gritty novel. Ben Affleck - the co-writer and director - has the Boston details down, and the actors nail the accents, especially Casey - who certainly proves he wasn't cast out of nepotism. There's one scene that's so revolting it seems to have come out of "The Hills Have Eyes," but it's crucial to the plot and the violence, though sickening, is necessary. And when you get to the resolution, you're not going to be thinking all is right with the world now. Some of the choices made by the characters seem both wrong-headed and correct; you'll be debating this one with the person you saw the movie with for a while, and that's one mark of a terrific film. That, this is. If Ben Affleck got ridicule heaped on him because of his acting choices, this is his sweet revenge. And Lehane can feel good that the second movie made from one of his novels (Clint Eastwood did "Mystic River") is now just at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington. Check website below times, places. or so. (Oh, do they play the Violent Femmes' song "Gone Baby Gone," which Lehane no doubt titled his book after? No. Good call. Trust me, it would have no pertinence.)

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