Netflix And Chill: Gone Baby Gone (2007)

The feature directorial debut of Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone allows the actor to come out swinging. Hard. Having also worked on the screenplay with Aaron Stockard, adapting the Dennis Lehane novel, Affleck has a controlling and steady hand all over this. He may have helped himself by casting his younger brother, Casey Affleck, in the lead role, with the two apparently bringing out the best in one another.

The plot revolves around the disappearance of a 4-year-old girl, Amanda McCready. The police, headed up by Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), want a positive outcome, but the odds of that happening diminish with every passing day. Desperate relatives hire Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), a street-smart private investigator who may be able to get information from people who wouldn't talk to the police. Kenzie works with his girlfriend, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan), and the two of them quickly seem to make a bit more progress than the police.

Almost as much a study of a place as it is a murky crime drama chock full of memorable characters, Gone Baby Gone sometimes comes perilously close to feeling like some kind of parody. Most of the cast have worked hard on their accents, but they're also people we don't normally hear speaking with that particular Boston drawl. The strength of the material helps them overcome that though, as well as their commitment to their roles (most notable in the strong atypical turn from Amy Ryan, playing the mother of the missing girl).

Although arguably not as cinematically ambitious as his next feature, The Town, this benefits from a script that mixes neo-noir cool with a load of unsavoury characters. The twists and turns are gripping, but none of them feel completely unbelievable. And the third act is one superb moment after another.

There isn't really anyone here I could single out as letting down the rest of the cast, with fairly flawless performances (wavering accents aside) across the board. Affleck is perfect for the lead role, always being underestimated due to his youthful appearance, but always sizing up every bad situation as quickly as possible to find the best way out of it. Monaghan does fine, playing a vital character who almost provides another entire facet to Affleck's character. As well as Ryan giving a great performance, sterling support is provided by the likes of Morgan Freeman (as good as ever), Titus Welliver (another one here with one of his very best film roles), and Ed Harris (on top form). Michael Kenneth Williams has a couple of decent little moments and Edi Gathegi makes a strong impression as a criminal who may or may not know the whereabouts of the missing child.

Grounded with a very real blanket level of pain and trauma, and positing one hell of a moral quandary in the third act, Gone Baby Gone is a mature and thought-provoking work that also manages to be consistently captivating.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Drop (2014)

Dennis Lehane adapts his own short story, "Animal Rescue", into screenplay form for a feature that allows for a number of the main actors to deliver performances to rank up there with their very best. Although it's sad to remember that this was the last film completed by James Gandolfini, it's a bittersweet pleasure to see him go out on such a high, delivering the kind of stellar supporting turn he could so effortlessly pull out from his back pocket.

He's not the focus of the film, however. The person who is front and centre is Tom Hardy, playing Bob Saginowski. Bob works in a bar that belongs to his cousin, Marv AKA . . . Cousin Marv (Gandolfini). Well, I should say that it used to belong to Marv. He lost it some time ago, and now makes money for the owners while his name remains up on display. A number of things happen in a short space of time that threaten the relatively content situation Bob and Marv have made for themselves. Bob finds a dog dumped in a bin, and meets a woman (Nadia, played by Noomi Rapace) at the same time. The bar is robbed, with the stolen money being something tbat the criminal bar owners cannot let go without someone being responsible for it. And Bob starts to be harassed by Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts), who claims to be the owner of the ditched dog. Meanwhile, a Detective Torres (John Ortiz) is investigating the robbery, which makes everyone slightly edgy and looking as if they have even more to hide.

Directed by Michaël R. Roskam, as trite as this might sound, The Drop is a film that excels simply because it has a quality cast working with a solid script. Lehane doesn't do anything exceptional here (there's nothin on a par with some of the dialogue in Mystic River, for example), but he has taken the time to craft a quintet of characters who feel fully-formed, and who make you care about the cinematic journey in varying ways. Roskam puts his faith in these characters, and rightly so, which allows him to concentrate on simple and unfussy shot choices throughout. The emphasis is always on the geography and proximity of various characters, and every scene works within that remit.

Although I started this review by mentioning, and praising, Gandolfini, that's slightly unfair to his co-stars. Hardy gives a performance that, even for him, counts as one of his absolute best. And his scenes with Rapace work brilliantly, largely thanks to the fact that she is also on top form. She's arguably playing the most innocent character of the main group, but even she has a darkness in her past that is revealed in due course. Schoenaerts is an excellent pain in the ass, Ortiz does well as the familiar kind of cop who just knows that there's more going on than he can see, even if he suspects he also may never see it. Even the much smaller roles are cast perfectly, with fine little turns from people who at least completely look the part.

Is there anything that doesn't work? Very little. Perhaps Roskam could have done a bit more to make this feel a bit more cinematic (it's not hard to envision this being adapted into a stage play) and things come together in the finale in a way that isn't at all surprising. There's a chance that it's not meant to be, considering how large and unsubtle the signposting is, but things play out as if viewers are supposed to need to take a moment to process the information they have been fed, which most will have already figured out for themselves by the end of the first act.

Overall, this is a great piece of work. I especially recommend it to anyone who likes ANY of the main stars, but also just to anyone who likes a flawless acting ensemble.

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.