A great moral dilemma can transform a good movie into a great, indelible one that lives on for years and is discussed fervently forever more. A movie with a water-tight moral dilemma will provoke fierce, intense, divisive emotional reactions in viewers, who will come down on one side or the other and irrefutably defend that viewpoint to the hilt. However, some films often push the binary nature of the dilemma a little too hard, and the result is one that's actually not that complex at all when you think about it. Usually because the sensible option is actually pretty obvious when you boil it down, these movies got a little big for their britches and thought they were being far more thought-provoking than they actually were. Though occasionally these films arrived at the right moral choice, most of the time they blew it, and we were left despairing at our televisions. Here are 10 moral dilemmas that could have easily been solved...
10. Let The Child Stay With Morgan Freeman - Gone Baby Gone
The Dilemma: A child goes missing. It turns out that the local police Chief (Morgan Freeman) kidnapped the girl, Amanda, to try and give her a "better life" living with him and his wife. The protagonist, Kenzie (Casey Affleck) has to decide - rat the Chief out and return Amanda to her incompetent mother (Amy Ryan), or let her live with the Chief forever more.
The Solution: Kenzie decides, against advice from basically everyone, to turn the Chief in, causing the child to be returned to her mother, whereby it is implied at the end that the mother hasn't learned her lesson, and continues to be neglectful. Kenzie instead, out of a sense of obligation, decides to act as a sort of guardian angel, looking out for her.
How It Should Have Been Solved: You have to think about what's in the best interests of the child. It's best to shrug, leave her with the Chief, and promptly forget about the whole thing.