Character through choice – Gone Baby Gone
Ours is the era of the cult of personality. When asked to describe a friend, we say things like-
“S(H)e is cool.”
“You have a similar sense of humor. A really dry wit.”
Or “She is nice,” when the person is aesthetically challenged.
More than one friend of mine has lamented their dating life by complaining about an individual’s lack of personality. I ask for clarification, and it usually leaves them with the articulation of a 6 year old with Down’s. I try to help them find the words by saying,
“You mean he doesn’t like The Smiths?”
“I wish he had more edge to him.”
They usually don’t read the contempt in my words. So we define ourselves through what we consume. We talk about fashion sense, music we listen to, movies and writers and directors we like. In the end, it’s just shit we buy, rent or steal. This is also the number one reason for all social networking sites. To reduce an individual to their tastes in one easy to judge snapshot. Everyone wants to be unique, but they get on Facebook or Orkut, and find someone that is just like them, and feel a connection. Now they can be special and unique together.
Everything we consume is split into mass/mainstream or alternative/edgy/refined/sophisticated, when ultimately it just boils down to the numbers. A billion people like one thing, and a million like the other. So it makes people feel special by belonging to a smaller subset.
A good friend of mine was going through the meaning-of-life phase and tried to follow a spiritual path. For him, this involved giving up material desires. He started cutting back on things. Music, movies, types of food he ate. He started feeling lost. He told me that he was losing his sense of identity. Perhaps, that is what humans need to feel one with the universe. To lose ourselves in it.
I think it has always been like this, throughout the ages. Personality is easy to construct, character, a lot harder. Most times we don’t know what we are made of because we avoid difficult situations. Most people go through life without ever making a tough choice. A tough choice is not that between two career paths, or two girls, or low fat milk vs. skim.
During the tsunami or Katrina (I can’t remember which one), a mother could only save one child. She chose the infant, thinking the older boy had a better chance of saving his life. They got separated and eventually were united together. That is choice, and one that will haunt that family forever. Does the older son forgive her? Can she forgive herself? Was she being selfish or altruistic or practical? How will the brothers deal with each other in adulthood?
Far too many arbitrary things happen in life that shape our decisions and our choices don’t follow the laws of causality as we see in literature or cinema. Jaisi Karni waisi Bharni? Not. Drama takes the essence of multi-colored life, squeezes it through a reverse-prism, and produces a single truth as an argument for a way of life.
In cinema and screenwriting, more than any other form, the only way to reveal character is to see them making choices under conflict. I present Gone Baby Gone. A damn fine piece of screenwriting.
SPOILER ALERT
Casey and Michele have undertaken a case to recover a trashy single mom’s missing child on the insistence of the mother’s sister. They are to provide support to the police, since Casey knows the neighborhood and people will talk to him and not the pigs. Every time someone meets Casey, they comment on his boyish looks and lack of experience.
We have the first scene where we see Casey at work (about 15 minutes into the movie), talking to a local guy at a bar. It’s a sit and talk but this is a bad part of town, and people don’t like him snooping about. This scene is a good example of economy, and manages to hit severla beats without telegraphing them.
Casey gets a crucial piece of info (moves the plot forward), is threatened by a big guy at a bar that insults his girlfriend/fiance (conflict), Casey talks a tough game (shows Casey’s tough and resourceful), and most importantly expresses his love for girlfriend by hitting the guy with his gun for insulting her. This last beat is the most crucial, because it shows he is protective about her, and that she means a lot to him without singing a duet amidst tulips.
The investigation continues, and we have another dangerous/high conflict situation, where Casey and Michele are talking to a gangster in his den, making a deal. The hoodlum makes a pass at Michele and insults her. The situation is resolved, the plot moves forward, and Casey, again well out of his element in the surroundings threatens the hoodlum that he will chew his balls off if he ever disrespects his woman again. This is not Stallone threatening someone. This is fucking Casey Affleck, a scrawny white boy without a gun in the hood.
The beauty of both these scenes is that you are so focussed on the plot, that this character element is buried in it. You observe it but don’t think about it until the payoff in the end.
In the end Casey discovers that the police chief is the one behind the kidnapping, because he doesn’t have a child, and will love the little girl, whereas the single mom is trashy and negligent (demonstrated several times earlier). Here is the scene.
*********************************************
EXT DRIVEWAY – MOMENTS LATER
They start down the driveway towards a small, red cottage set
a hundred yards or so off the road. But after only a few
steps, they stop.
PATRICK & ANGIE’S POV: Through the trees, Doyle emerges from
the cottage. He carries 2 FULL SUITCASES to a SUBURBAN and
loads them in the back. His wife, FRANCINE, follows.
Patrick & Angie take a beat before resuming down the drive.
Only to FREEZE IN THEIR TRACKS at the sight of:
AMANDA MCCREADY CHARGING ONTO THE PORCH, clutching a BACK-
PACK, and wearing a look of utter determination.
AMANDA
Don’t forget mine, gramma.
FRANCINE
I’d never forget yours, sweetheart.
Doyle lifts Amanda off the porch and carries her to the
Suburban. He dips down, allowing Amanda to place her back-
pack inside.
AMANDA
Can I have a, please a sandwich?
DOYLE
What kind do you want.
AMANDA
Grill Cheese.
DOYLE
You like the crusts on, right?
AMANDA
(thrilled with this game)
Noooo! I don’t like the crusts on!
DOYLE
(fakes remembering)
That’ s right, that’s right.
Patrick and Angie have ducked into the woods. They are both
in shock.
PATRICK
Jesus.
ANGIE
She’s alive.
SERIES OF FLASHBACKS SHOWING WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN
EXTREMELY QUICK SUCCESSION.
-1 – -
EXT. TOWNSEND ROAD – AFTERNOON
Patrick walks down Doyle’s driveway toward the car. Angie is
sitting, leaned up against the hood, he head tilted forward.
As Patrick draws near, she lifts her head up to him and we
see she has been crying.
This isn’t what Patrick expected and he is taken aback for a
beat, long enough for Angie to say:
ANGIE
She’s happy.
PATRICK
No.. .
ANGIE
She’ s happy here.
(beat)
I saw her.
PATRICK
Angie, don’t do this.
ANGIE
If you call the Police they’ll send her
back.
PATRICK
I need you on my side.
ANGIE
I am on your side but I can’t send her
back.
PATRICK
We’re not sending her anywhere. That’s
her mother. She has a right to her
child.
ANGIE
He’s better for her.
PATRICK
Why? Because he has money and makes
sandwiches?
ANGIE
simply)
Because he loves her.
PATRICK
Helene loves her, too.
ANGIE
No.
PATRICK
She might learn from this.
ANGIE
No. People don’t change.
Angle grows more impassioned.
ANGIE (CONT’ D)
Helene is arsenic. She’ll kill her.
She’ll burn the life out of her.
PATRICK
You can’t take away someone’s kid.
ANGIE
I don’t want to. I want to leave their
child with them.
PATRICK
~ l l this time we wanted to bring her
home. Why is that wrong now?
ANGIE
Because I know right and wrong when I see
it.
PATRICK
I need you to understand me right now. I
need you to love me and say I know this
is a hard decision but I stand by you. I
need you to take me home and make this
okay.
ANGIE
I can do that. I can take you home and I
know how to make it okay.
(beat)
(MORE )
ANGIE (CONT’D)
It will be okay because every now and
again we’ll talk about her and where she
might be and what grade she’s in and
we’ll be proud of her and that will be
okay.
(beat)
Because we’ll know she’s in a good school
and safe and has sleep overs and birthday
parties and smiles every day.
(beat)
And maybe sometime we’ll drive out here
and watch a softball game with a teenager
in it from the back bleachers and we’ll
see how much she’s grown. And then I’ll
take you home and we’ 11 know it’s okay.
PATRICK
You can’t ask me to do something I can’t
do.
ANGIE
You can’t ask me to live with it,
She makes a plea.
ANGIE (CONT’ D)
Patrick, for me. Please?
(beat)
I’ll hate you for doing it. I don’t want
to but I will.
She walks away, leaving him alone by the side of the road.
EXT. DOYLE SUMMER COTTAGE, DRIVEWAY – MOMENTS LATER
We push in, approaching Doyle who turns to see Patrick.
Doyle watches Patrick. He offers a measured greeting.
DOYLE
Patrick Kenzie. To what do I owe the
pleasure?
He holds Doyle’s look.
PATRICK
Remy Bressant died last night.
DOYLE
I was told. It’s a shame.
PATRICK
Hard to understand. He seemed like a
good man.
DOYLE
He was a good man. You don’t know why
people do what they do. Only they see
out their own windows.
With that, AMANDA walks out the door, running to Jack and
clinging to his leg. Jack holds Patrick’s look.
AMANDA
Papapa. Come make sandwiches now please.
Doyle smiles, giving away nothing of his tension with
Patrick.
Francine comes to the door.
DOYLE
(to Francine)
It’s all right.
(to Amanda)
Go inside, my sweet. I’ll be there soon
and make you a sandwich.
Francine hesitates. Doyle is gentle.
DOYLE (CONT’D)
I’m all right.
Francine takes her back inside.
A beat. Doyle smiles.
DOYLE (CONT’ D)
So you know. Good for you. You
uncovered the thing men died for.
PATRICK
Men killed for.
DOYLE
I’m giving that little girl a life.
PATRICK
It’s not your life to give. Helene is
her mother. You think she’s a bad mother
you should have gone to social services.
Short of that, it’s her mother, it’s
where she belongs.
DOYLE
Turn around, get back in your car and
wait thirty years. You don’t know what
the world is made of yet.
PATRICK
I know I’m tired of being lied to and
tired of being lectured by a gang of
criminals. I’m calling the State Police
in five minutes. They’ll be here in ten.
DOYLE
No.
(beat)
You haven’t made that call because you
think it might be an irreparable mistake.
Because part of you believes it doesn’t
matter what the rules say. Because you
know, when the lights go out and it’s
just you and your conscience you ask
yourself if she’s better here or better
there, you know the answer and you always
will.
PATRICK
See you at the arraignment.
DOYLE
You can do one good pure thing here
today. One right thing. Most men don’t
get that chance in a lifetime.
(beat)
You walk away from that, you may not
regret it when you get home, or in a year
but I promise you, get to where I am, you
will. But I’ll be dead by then, you’ll
be old, and she’ll be trailing a ragged,
tattered childhood of her own — and
you’ll be the one who has to tell them
you’ re sorry.
PATRICK
Then I guess I will. I’ll tell them I’m
sorry and I’ll live with it. And maybe
that will happen, what I’m not gonna do,
is have to apologize to a grown woman who
says, why did you leave me? I got
kidnapped, my aunt hired you to find me,
and you did. You found me with a strange
family but you broke your promise and you
left me there. Why? Why didn’t you
bring me home?
(MORE )
PATRICK (CONT ‘ D)
It don’t matter how many outfits and
snacks and family trips we took– they
weren’t my family, they stole me and I
was raised as a stranger to myself and
the life I would have had. You knew
about it, you knew better and you did
nothing. And maybe that grown woman will
forgive me but I won’t forgive myself.
It hangs in the air. Silence …
PATRICK (CONT’D)
The only thing I care about is that
little girl. And I’m gonna bring her
home.
Doyle hears this. Has his reaction, something like a
sagging, an emptiness, and a resolution.
DOYLE
Then you’ll have to excuse me. I still
have a sandwich left to make.
He turns and walks inside.
SAME – LATER
Patrick watches from down the road. Doyle is on the porch.
Jack sits in his favorite chair. Amanda is on his lap,
facing him, arms around his shoulders, head tucked into his
neck. He slowly rocks the chair. He holds Amanda like its
the last hug of his life. His eyes are fixed on a point
somewhere far off in the distance.
Patrick takes out his phone.
In the distance sirens wail faintly, getting louder.
Just inside the door is Amanda’s colorful kids back-pack, a
strange and cute stuffed snake, and Francine’s bag spilling
over with zip-locked snacks and children’s cups– all the
stuff Francine had packed to make sure Amanda would have,
whereever she’d go.
Over this all, beginning faintly and growing increasingly
audible, is the inanity of the television news. It’s blather
like a merciless blanket of idiocy over something hopelessly
sad.
A swarm of West Beckett POLICE CRUISERS cram the small road.
A Deputy knocks on the door. Doyle answers. He knows the
local cops’ who are embarrassed to arrest him. He makes it
easy for them.
Doyle nods at the deputy with quiet acceptance and the
dignity of a man at peace with the choices hers made.
The DEPUTY puts a hand-cuffed Doyle into the back of his car.
Francine Doyle silently mouthing! “oh my God’ oh my God.”
Angie looks out from the car’ past the policef past
everything.
They move to Francine to put her in a police car.
Amandal being taken from Francine’ cries and reaches out to
her. She screams.
Francine is handcuffed.
Patrick tries to hold his look.
Patrick stands with a GROUP OF SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES.
He looks to Angie …
She doesn’ t look back.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT HELENE’S APARTMENT – EVENING
The crush of media has descended outside the apartment for
footage of the joyous reunion. Helene is made up. She waits
on the curb as the POLICE CAR arrives.
Out gets a FEMALE OFFICERr holding Amandar who is terrified
by the rapacious mob of REPORTERS AND PHOTOGWPHERS.
Amanda’s fear of the throng causes her to cling to Helenel
giving the photographers the shot they want.
Patrick watches from his car’ parked up the block. He is
alone.
ADDITIONAL STREET MONTAGE IMAGES FEATURING PATRICK
He is in the neighborhood.
EXT. CITY STRETT – SUNSET
Patrick drives. He sees the ITALIAN MAN (Gerry Speca) and
they trade looksl once again’ 40 fps as he drives by.
INT PATRICK & ANGIE’S APT – EVENING
Patrick comes home. Boxes are packed. The place feels less
warm. More bare.
A voice from the doorway turns him around. It’s Angie.
ANGIE
Sorryr I had to come back and get some
stuff.
PATRICK
It’s okay.
She looks at himl almost sympathetic.
PATRICK ( CONT ‘ D)
Can we at least talk?
ANGIE
There’s nothing to say
She smiles’ maybe some water pooling at the corners of her
eyes.
After a beat’ looking at her he steps aside. She moves past
him and out the door.
******************************************************
Most writers would be happy ending it like this. But screenwriters Ben Affleck, AAron Stockard, and novelist Dennis Lehane, come back for the kill. They have demonstrated the hero making a tough choice, and doing the right thing and losing his love for that. At least he can sleep at night knowing he made the correct choice, right?
Watch/Read the last scene of the movie, and come to your own conclusions. This is one of the most emotionally devastating endings I have seen in a long time.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Dabba: Interesting! Haven’t seen the movie yet so stopped reading the momen I reached the Spoiler Alert. But I was intrigued by what I read till then. Determining character through difficult choices we make is an interesting premise at best. What defines true character is living up to the consequences of the choice that you make. Either accepting them or fighting them. Merely finding yourself (or placing yourself) in a difficult situation of making a choice can be achieved by any cavalier misadventurer
Excellent post. Saw this film a month back and was blown away. Who would have thought that two out of work actors could deliver an original thriller like this one. As if to say, “Gone, Baby Gone? Nah. We is back, fu”
#### SPOLIER ALERT ####
You have rightly said that choice under conflict is used to reveal a character. One thing I would like to point out. Halfway through the film there is this scene where Casey and Bressant raid a pedophiles hideout. Casey finds him weeping alone in a room, then sees a dead kid, throws up and shoots the unarmed guy. It’s shot as if to suggest it was an “in the moment” thing, an unmediated reaction. But he had a choice, didn’t he?
This murder is downright unethical, not to mention criminal. Yet his girlfriend appreciates him for it. If I remember correctly she actually says she’s proud of him. “You’re proud of me because I killed a man?”, he shoots back. *He* doubts it, and Remi Bressant gets drunk and reveals something from his own past. This revelation is crucial to the film’s resolution. In fact, it’s a catalyst; first half ends and then you have this revelation and the story moves forward.
So there are two choices Casey makes in the film. The first where he breaks the law in a moment of madness. And madness is remote to his character. Then there’s the second one where he complies with the law. This choice makes no one happy.
I wonder if he makes the second choice to atone for his first. These choices also throw light on other characters. Everyone else appears to anarchic, Casey alone seems to hold the light. And then comes the final scene…
Of all the great films I have seen in the last few months, this is the one that haunts me.
The word “tragedy” is commonly used to define something sad or unfortunate, but in a classical sense the word has meant the unfortunate consequences of a hero stemming from his own decisions or the whims of the gods.
What haunted me about this film is that it is tragedy realized. To look at the decisions and actions of all the film’s characters objectively is to see that every character is right, every character makes the best decision, and every good decision has an outcome that is wrong.
A moral tale that isn’t moralistic, this film stays with the viewer for a long, long time…
‘emotionally devastating endings’??
considering the lead up and the plot.. there couldnt have been another ending.. i mean another ‘better’ ending, which showcases the lack of an absolute answer to the puzzle.
its an apt metaphor for the butterfly flapping its wings miles away theory (i dont remember the details rt now)
Uhh.. I think this is badly executed movie.. It has a great plot.. What it seems from surface as a thriller is a great drama but three episodes – first one look for girl, second for boy, and third one to look back girl’s episode made me discontinunity feel.. Somehow I wasn’t connected with girl’s adbuction case..
As far as last scene, its not only last scene but whole third act is powerful. I do feel sometimes that parents like her mother shouldn’t allow to have babies at all.. But only 1/3 part of the movie doesn’t make it great..
Nik
I’m a huge sucker for ambiguous / ambivalent endings and it don’t come better than this.
This is one of the best films I’ve seen all year.
The greatest thing about Gone Baby Gone is the way it ends, and that rare film that is worthy of its ending.
If we notice, the shot from behind the television seems to linger on for a moment or two more than it was intended to, as if entranced by the view and what it had just created. The greatness of the ambiguity of this shot is that it is both reassuring and disconcerting.
I have reviewed this film here -
http://movie-place.blogspot.com/2008/01/gone-baby-gone-movie-review.html
Hi,
Just watched this movie yesterday! Damn good. And in the DVD there is an alternate ending. Not much of a change, but there is Patrick’s voice over when the camera lingers behind the TV for a moment.
@ subrat –
agreed. Choice without suffering or living up to the consequences is no choice at all, but merely roulette or darts. do watch the movie when u have a chance.
@ sheikh –
This is Ben’s redemption song after all that smugness and douchebaggery.
***SPOILER ALERT*****
I think you may be right about Casey sticking to his guns and doing the “right” or lawful thing to atone for his impulsive and illegal action earlier.
His girlfriend being proud of him after that, seems to be a recurring theme in novelist Dennis Lehane’s books. If you rememeber Mystic River, after Sean Penn kills Robbins, his wife (Marcia Gay Hayden), is all like cheering him on, and saying he is the king of the house, and there’s the shot of the cross on sean penn’s back.
I don’t know if the author agrees with the actions of these men, and the support of the women with them or he is mocking the women for the belief in their man’s righteousness.
When Dennis Hopper blows up at Casey when they’re talking, I knew he was it. When Freeman disappeared from the film after the first act, I knew he was it. I expected the mother’s sister to be involved, but it was the husband.
As a mystery/thriller, it is pretty straight up connect the dots. It is the character study that elevates it.
@ t! –
“a moral tale that isn’t moralistic”
Pretty much sums it up.
@ DPac –
In far too many movies, the hero or superhero has to make a choice between two, and ends up saving both. Having the cake and eating it too. Total cop out. In Batman 3 (with Val), he has to choose between saving Robin or the girlfriend. In Spiderman 1 (or was it 2), he has to choose between girlfriend and a tram/subway full of passengers. IN both cases, they end up saving both.
In Gone, not only does he have to turn in a good man, he tears away the girl from a family that she is obviously happy with, all in the name of some principle, and loses his girlfriend in the process.
Now, he and we could sleep well at night saying that he did the right thing, so what if it came at a price, that would be one thing.
It took a lot of courage on Ben’s part to have that last scene, and not give anyone the satisfaction of the right choice made. It still lingers…Did he make the right choice? Was it all worth it? But he does it so subtly. If you notice the single mom has cleaned up quite a bit now, and is not that trashy. Although she is still negligent and quite a bit trashy.
A less confident director would have made her all boozy/coked up to drive home a point.
@ 5 Nik –
I think a lot of critics cut Ben some slack because everyone was surprised at his choice of material, how he handled it, and the very good performances. I think casting Freeman was a big mistake plotwise. They should have used a lesser known actor.
Structurally it has problems. Especially since the movie lmost comes to a halt in the middle and starts up again on a different thread. I’m guessing this has to do with adapting from the novel. You are right that the third act as a whole was powerful. It made me overlook the problems in the middle.
well, your review made me think about the movie and after thinking a lot, I didn’t feel that discontinuty feel.. Although it halts in the middle, second act was required to connect first and third act.. Thanks for changing my views.. Althogh it won’t be masterpiece for me, it won’t be badly executed film (as I said earliar) either…;)
@dabba
Batman and Spiderman??!! hardly the names i think off when i am looking for counter points relative to GBG…
Freeman was a wrong choice… gives too much away.
as a mystery/thriller it aint all that good. (i generally rate it pretty low if things get predictable for me)…
@ DPac –
sorry, couldn’t think of any other movies. I had a similar issue with mystic river. Everyone raved about the film, I knew exactly who the killer was and why. After that i was just watching Sean Penn screaming, “Is that my OSCAR in there?”
dabba,
i have no issues with the predictability of both, as both were not sold to me as ‘thriller whodunits’
my bad if i sounded otherwise.
plus GBG and MR is similar in the tone and general aura as well
that was a lovely read
the movie was excellent.