Gone Baby Gone - Did he make the right decision? [SPOILER ALERT!!!]

unreggd

Not usin spoiler tags as I already stated this thread is a spoiler!


Do you think Kenzie did the right thing bringin Amanda back to her mother??

Driver 8

*Spoilers*

The opening monologue demonstrated why he was always going to make that decision. Lehane's novels are all about those areas, those communities, and people feel such an affinity and relationship to their environment. For Pat, to betray that, as he saw it, would be completely wrong.

Great book, very fine movie.

MooseJam

oh well if no spoilers I think the kid would have been better off with the cop, the mother was a junkie enough said, plus he went and lost Angie - wrong move

Wacker

I voted No, but I would have also voted No if he had left the kid with the cop. The right thing to do would have been to have Freeman's character arrested, and then have the kid taken off the mother and put into foster care. The mother was clearly an unfit parent, but the situation with Freeman would also have been no good. The girl would have been unable to go to school for one thing, or go to any populated places at all.

MooseJam

sure she would I'm sure Freeman would have had no problem getting new documentation for her, maybe just keep her out of sight for a couple of years

Placebo

YES
BUT his gf didnt, typical girl, confused and fussy !

Mr E

Who wanted Casey and Michelle to face each other, say something like "Thats a terrible ending, lets do the happy ending". Then they say "doodley-doo-doodley-doo-doodley-doo" while wiggling their fingers, and redo the last 5 minutes where everyone lives happily ever after.

Just me then. OK.

Apologies for obscure Waynes World reference....

Mitch Connor

on a related note, the review of this movie in the RTE Guide said that their investigations would lead them through a web of consaricy that leads all the way to the top, the grizzeled police vet played by Morgan Freeman....

WHAT THE HELL! way to blow most of the movie!!

L31mr0d

I voted yes, we are not given enough information about Morgan Freemans character to know if he would be a good parent or not. What we do know is who the girls real parent is. It is not up to anyone else to decide how that child should be risen. If she is truly being neglectful then social services would have to step in.

Neo#

He might the right choice. It was his job to bring the girl back to her parent. It wasnt up to him to decide which parent was best and he had to follow the law. Thats his job. And the above poster is right. We dont know what sort of parent Freeman would be. He is the type of person who would steal a child for starters. The right and only decision all the way.

johnny_ultimate

Yup, right decision. It was all about the character. He was too rooted in his own beliefs and morals to do anything else. If it had of gone the other way, would have been way too cheap an ending, and wouldn't have fit with Affleck's character at all - whose responsibilties to solve the case, keep the community together and stay loyal to the aunt's initial request dictated his actions from the off.

Hrududu

I think he probably did make the right choice. I mean the mother was a junkie but the cop was a murderer. They probably would have taken better care of her but how could she have a normal life. I mean if the man in charge of the Maddie McCann case suddenly had a child that looked exactly like her when he didnt before how long would he get away with it. At some point he would have been found out and she'd have ended up back where she did. If the mother is that unfit then Patrick should have shopped her to social services.

thewools

I voted YES...

But have mixed feeling on this one.. I left the cinema debating the issue, but I slightly side towards "Yes"

Sure the mother is a tramp / junky / piece of S**t who doesnt deserve such a gift of a daughter! But at the end of the day Family is Family... Everyone deserves to be their blood relations if it is possible. And if the mother messes up again then sure get in foster care...

Good film though and actually glad that there was no "happy" ending!! Makes a change

event

he made the right choice, but only because he made a promise to the mother that he would get her kid back

Mitch Connor

thewools wrote: »

I voted YES...

But have mixed feeling on this one.. I left the cinema debating the issue, but I slightly side towards "Yes"

Sure the mother is a tramp / junky / piece of S**t who doesnt deserve such a gift of a daughter! But at the end of the day Family is Family... Everyone deserves to be their blood relations if it is possible. And if the mother messes up again then sure get in foster care...

Good film though and actually glad that there was no "happy" ending!! Makes a change

i based my decision on my knowledge of the irish system, and i voted no. the mother was a junkie who, at most points in the movie, didn't seem to actually care that her daughter was missing - more interested in not getting done for drug running and taking.

pretty much no matter how neglectful she was or could have been, social services, in Ireland, would be able to do nothing. I know of junkies arriving at hospitals to collect (having no visited them at all) their kids still off their faces, to be told they can bring the kid home tomorrow if they aren't off their faces then.

If social services are as incapable of action in america as they are here, they kid would have been better off with Morgan Freeman.

Tusky

Wrong decision in my opinion.

The way I look at it is this - the mother was a very very unfit parent. Before any of this happened, social services should have been called and the child given to a loving family that would raise her properly.

Everyone knows its not as simple as this. Maybe she wouldn't have found a loving family through social services for example.

Now, skip forward to what actually happened. She had a loving family in Morgan Freemans character and his wife. Cut out the social services and leave her with them. Its an illegal shortcut but at least she is guaranteed to be loved and properly cared for. Its a means to an end, not ideal, but certainly preferable to leaving her with her birth mother.

Her mother is a despicable character and doesn't deserve a child.

Great movie.