The Ending Ben Afflecks superb directorial debut ends on a hauntingly bleak note. Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) has gone to a great deal of effort to solve the case of missing Amanda McCready, returning the little girl to her drug-addled mother. The final scene of the film sees Kenzie return to the McCready homestead to check-up on the young girl he is understandably attached to. As he arrives, Amandas mother Helene announces that she is going on a date and dumps the unloved child on Patrick. The film ends with Patrick staring contemplatively at Amanda, the young girl gazing despondently into the old TV set. Depressing Because Though it may not seem like a particularly tragic ending outwardly, the final frames of Gone Baby Gone are deeply troubling. It is all too evident that Amandas mother is more concerned about getting either a fix or a fella than caring for her own daughter who she had until recently thought was rotting in some psychopaths cellar somewhere. It is in this final scene that we think the private investigator has made a huge mistake; he shouldve left Amanda with her kidnappers who he knows for a fact would have given the child a far better life. By preventing a crime with only one drug-addled victim he has sentenced Amanda to a lifetime trapped with her mother. A Silver Lining? Though she is doomed to a life of neglect, rejection and poverty at least young Amanda didnt fall foul of a kidnapping by a legitimate criminal.
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
