ben affleck's GONE BABY GONE (2007)

it turns out Ben Affleck isn't a complete cosmic waste of space, just that he was on the wrong side of the camera! Gone Baby Gone is a slick, capable and occasionally impressive debut from everyone's eleventh-favorite romantic lead, drawing a lot of strength from a great cast (it is, for instance, damn clear who got whatever acting genes there are to be had in the Affleck lineage) but even more from an uncommonly well-drawn portrait of the smaller corners of a big city. even if it didn't share Amy Ryan, Michael K. Williams and Dennis Lehane with The Wire, there would still be easy parallels to draw between the two: GBG's Dorchester streets are as finely textured as those of The Wire's Baltimore, featuring faces and types you don't often see in movies but quite plainly belong where they pop up, which is all the more conducive to the startling depth of the character constellations. in the end it's a pity that Lehane's lopsided narrative doesn't squeeze more comfortably into a feature film, but Affleck's still to be commended for a job finally well done.