Gone, baby, gone

Last night Albert and I saw a movie. Gone, baby, gone is a thriller about a missing girl, and it deploys a fascinating moral dilemma over what's the right thing to do. See the spoilers below if you don't mind, but I recommend you see it, it's not the same if you know the ending. It's based on a book by one of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane.

Lehane is the author of Mystic River, the book on which the movie with the same name was based, starring Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins, and directed by Clint Eastwood. Besides Mystic River, Lehane is the author of a series of five novels based on a detective couple, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, who live and work in Dorchester, one of the worst Boston neighborhoods (and where Lehane was born and raised). Gone, baby, gone is the fourth book in the series. I highly recommend Lehane's books to everyone.

And as a side note, the premiere of this movie in the UK has been delayed due to the similarities with the case of Madeleine McCann, the missing English 4-year-old girl.

SPOILERS

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The movie is about a missing girl, but it's all a ploy by the chief policeman, who lost his own daughter a few years back. He arranges everything to keep the girl, planning her supposed death at the kidnappers' hands. The moral dilemma comes because the real mother is a drunk druggie, and Kenzie, when he uncovers the whole case, will have to decide whether he stays mum and lets the cop keep the girl, where she can live a normal, loving life, or he blows the whistle, probably sentencing the girl to a life of poverty, drugs, or prostitution. Moreover, Angela has clear and strong ideas about the subject, so he risks losing everything...