Gone Baby Gone *SPOILERS*

I hated the end too. I'd rather the girl end up with Morgan than go back to her mother.

I struggled to watch it. I thought it was absolute crap. Very disappointed.



Oddly, the ending is the only thing that saved it for me. I said to my wife, "They better not bullshit this ending up!" She read the book, I did not. I thought for a second that he wasn't going to call the cops and it really pissed me off. I said the only thing that will save the last two hours I wasted on this movie is if he calls the police and they put Morgan in jail and return the child to her mother. It doesn't matter that she was a shitty mother...justice is justice. He committed several crimes in order to have the girl with him. That was the only thing that saved a crap movie for me.

KTC said:

I struggled to watch it. I thought it was absolute crap. Very disappointed.



Oddly, the ending is the only thing that saved it for me. I said to my wife, "They better not bullshit this ending up!" She read the book, I did not. I thought for a second that he wasn't going to call the cops and it really pissed me off. I said the only thing that will save the last two hours I wasted on this movie is if he calls the police and they put Morgan in jail and return the child to her mother. It doesn't matter that she was a shitty mother...justice is justice. He committed several crimes in order to have the girl with him. That was the only thing that saved a crap movie for me.

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Hmmm. I thought it was a very, very good film. Ed Harris was an animal, and I thought the performances by the leads were great. I sort of wished Affleck wouldn't have given the film totally to his brother; I wanted to see more of the female lead. And of course Dennis Lehane gave them a great story to work with, as he did in Mystic River. (I actually preferred this movie to Eastwood's.)

But I also liked the ending, but I think you're mistaken as to why Patrick returned her. It wasn't because of "justice." There was no justice in giving her back. He knew that, knew that the mother would go around fucking things up (as, based on the last scene, she will).

No, he gave her back because he was one of them. He knew those people, had grown up with them, and I think he wanted to stay true to who he was and where he had come from by returning the girl.

One thing about this movie:

The Angie in the film is NOT the Angie in Lehane's novels. Affleck changed her pretty dramatically.

I actually don't think a character like the one in the novels would play in Hollywood. Audiences aren't going to want to sit there and watch a sassy, smart, tough-as-hell woman take over the action from the guys.

i really liked this flick. i get bored with happy hollywood endings. the one thing i really didn't like was that his girlfriend couldn't forgive him. for me that was more heartbreaking than returning the girl to her mother.

I understand what you're saying, but as a foster parent I have had many neglected kids and I think sometimes it's better when they're with someone who shows them love and protects them, even if it's not their bio parents.

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true - but in this story the "foster parent" was technically a criminal. if she was a neglectful parent the authorities could have taken her away and with a police officer and brother-in-law being a witness to that fact i'm sure they could have made a convincing case against her. the brother in law was weak and afraid to show his position.

DustySterling said:

I understand what you're saying, but as a foster parent I have had many neglected kids and I think sometimes it's better when they're with someone who shows them love and protects them, even if it's not their bio parents.

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granted...but the point I was making is that vigilante justice is usually illegal. There are other ways to go about getting a child away from its mother. Murder, kidnapping and police criminal activity? Not so much. The good guy could only prevail if he turned the crooked cop in. I thought for a moment the movie was going to be a stupid lovefest of illegalities.

NikeeGoddess said:

i really liked this flick. i get bored with happy hollywood endings. the one thing i really didn't like was that his girlfriend couldn't forgive him. for me that was more heartbreaking than returning the girl to her mother.

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Yeah, I have to admit I would have preferred the girlfriend to stay.

Was anyone else as impressed as I was by the marvelously authentic faces Affleck cast in small roles and as extras? We hit pause over and over to get a better look.

I admired that the film's ending stayed true to the book's. I assume the author chose the ending he did for a reason, just like you and I do on our work, and attempts to Hollywood-ize it until it's happy dismay me.

Maryn, who liked it better than KTC did

Yeah I wasn't a huge fan of this movie
I fell asleep. I haven't read the book but I figured out alot of the movie before we were 15 minutes into it.
I do agree about the girlfriend. That part sucked.

I thought the ending was perfect--the Casey Affleck character's decisions at the end were absolutely consistent with what the movie has been telling us all along about him. A warmer and fuzzier ending would have weakened the story.

TerzaRima said:

I thought the ending was perfect--the Casey Affleck character's decisions at the end were absolutely consistent with what the movie has been telling us all along about him. A warmer and fuzzier ending would have weakened the story.

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I agree. I didn't LIKE what happened in the end, but it made sense.

My only real complaint with the film (as I said in the "last movie you watched" thread) was that I could barely understand Casey Affleck half the time. It sounded like he was drunk or had a swollen tongue or something.

It's a tough film to watch, the ending especially. I was hoping he'd let the girl stay w/ Morgan at the end too. But was that right? Which was right? I think that's why I liked it so much, it made me uncomfortable and it made me think and I like feeling that way (and thinking).

What did everyone think when he shot the pedophile/child murderer in the head after he found the little boy's body? I was happy he did it and relieved. Then when Patrick was upset about it I was like "Oh, well he did just kill someone!"

Peace

My wife and I loved the movie. I seriously think Ben should quit acting and go with directing. He's that good.

About the ending: my wife said, I wish he'd left the girl with Morgan. He would have been a better parent. I disagreed. I said that yeah, it was a crappy situation, but it was the law.

Side note: we've also argued over the Elian Gonzalez situation, with her saying the boy belonged with his biological father, regardless of the home or country he'd be raised in and whether it was a good home. I said the boy should have stayed in the US where he'd have had a chance at a good life.

Funny how a movie, and a book, will make you think about your views on real life, huh?

OMG, I just saw this and I had to find someplace to rant about it, and a writer's board is exactly the place to rant about what drove me crazy, and I quote:

Will Lavender said:

One thing about this movie:

The Angie in the film is NOT the Angie in Lehane's novels.

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I don't even really like the books that much, but this made me INSANE.

Not only did they take an interesting character and take all the life out of her. But even just trying to take the movie on its own merits, she didn't work. It's not just that she's too skinny, too pretty, too pugnosed to be the Angie of the books - and that's before she opens her mouth. But she's nothing ELSE either. She's not a different character, she's nothing. Surely even if you haven't read the books, doesn't she seem like a big hole in the middle of the movie where a character should be?

I did hate many other things about it. But it seemed like she was the most fundamental error. Even if she's just there to serve a purpose in the main character's life, she has to be somebody. We can't care about the end of the relationship because there's nothing to the relationship. Because how can the main character have a relationship with nothing? Her only personality elements seem to be a generic stereotypical female caring-about-children thing.

And maybe it's not the actress's fault, maybe there was nothing in the script to work with, but she sure didn't seem to help. Every time you look at the screen, there's a bunch of other people that you could probably believe in, usually in a place that you could also believe in... but then the camera is pointed at this woman and an alarm goes off in your mind "actress! actress!" and there's no hope for the suspension of disbelief.

This is the sort of thing that makes me wish that it was impossible to make movies from books. Like that it was some kind of copyright violation that was so hard to get around that it was easier for movies to just always come up with their own stories.

Whew. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

Hollan said:

What did everyone think when he shot the pedophile/child murderer in the head after he found the little boy's body?

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For me it was perfect, and intensely satisfying.

One of my best friends, deceased now, was a career beat cop in Massachusetts. He saw so much that he eventually requested a partner because after years of dealing with the worst of humanity he didn't trust himself when alone to not either shoot or beat to hamburger the next twisted suspect or the next or the next just to do it and remove that person from society permanently. Kenzie's reaction was real, a thing which people actually in these situations are very hard-pressed to NOT do.

This story/film is like an onion, so many layers and cells to it. Catholicism informs Kenzie's thinking and reactions too, along with the neighborhood and school ties.

I loved this film foremost for its accuracies and truths about human failings. Lehane knows this world of damaged children all too well, and I'm glad he can bring himself to put a spotlight on it.

I thought the ending spoke well to the fact that following the rules and the law may not always serve as they're meant to.