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Yesterday I went for my first midnight movie of the year, and in the longest time ever. I picked up Ding, and Andy from opposite Pyramid’s bus stop where he was working at about 10pm, and went off to Midvalley. There, we purchased tickets for Gone Baby Gone at 11.45pm, and ate and chit-chatted about various “what ifs” at McD’s to pass the time away.

I was ready to be proven wrong that Gone Baby Gone would be dull. But it’s really a gritty drama about a missing girl named Amanda, or in a provided logline: “Two Boston private-eyes risk everything to investigate a missing child in a territory of broken families, bitter cops and whacked out ex-cons”. The aggregated reviews I saw online at Yahoo! Movies, divided into Critics and User Reviews, averaged at B+ and B respectively, so it should be quite good – I’ve yet to see a movie achieved the coveted A in a long while.

Morgan Freeman as Captain Doyle, Casey Affleck (Ben Affleck’s younger brother, who has a Boston drawl that I love to listen to (if there’s such a thing)) as Patrick Kenzie, and Michelle Monaghan as Angie Gennaro.

I won’t spoil anything because this movie, despite its limited availability in the US (which was released last year) and Malaysia (it wasn’t screened in Pyramid nor Summit, which is why we had to go all the way to Midvalley), deserves to be watched. It’s a suspenseful charm that invites viewers to step into the shoes of the protagonist of the film; it was as much sad as it was poignant and thought-provoking – and finishing watching this movie will force you to question yourself, “What would I have done?” The absolute right and wrong no longer exist – it all boils down to your principles and moral views.

Amy Ryan in the middle as Helene, mother of missing Amanda.

It leaves me feeling awfully melancholic (further expounded by listening to emo tracks like 最长的电影 by Jay Chou) about the persistent evils manifesting in our world in the form of child molesters, child rapists, and kidnappers. It hits home because we still have missing children everyday throughout the world as in Sharlinie’s case, who has yet been found even after nearly two months – call me pessimistic, but I’m not wrong if I’m being real by saying that poor girl will not be found again, alive or dead.

For the sole reason of not wanting to expose my own children to the big bad wolves in a world of genial sheep, I feel less inclined to want to have kids.

Reached home at nearly 2.30am.

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Two of my biggest pet peeves when watching a movie in the cinema occurred yesterday night:

1) Movie cuts: I’ve been complaining about this too much that I think it no longer has any value, as often than not, our voices and opinions about movie censorship were naught in a fairly conservative country. Gone Baby Gone suffered more than 50 cuts due to foul language and I’m not even exaggerating – why in the love of our species’ evolution would the censorship savagely snip words such as “fuck, cunt, dick” (these words actually failed to be cut off so it’s even more amusing) for an 18PL movie is beyond me.

I’d understand if it’s a U movie, but to butcher up a very good 18+ movie with its indiscriminate cuts that it breaks the momentum of the film pisses me off to no end. I think it’s even more insulting to think that we, who are certainly of age, need to be policed about foul language when it’s a norm for most of us, regardless of its questionable morals.

Please lah Censorship Board, get a fucking grip because I’m sure in your comfortable corrupted mansions, either you or your family members actually use expletives. Or other movies with sex scenes or violent moments that have been censored because wow, all the rational adults watching the movies slapped with 18+ ratings would suddenly copulate with the immediate person sitting next to him/her, or start blowing up others into bloody smithereens.

I’d rather if they ban the fucking movie instead or slap it with the huge label, “Gone Baby Gone, 18PL, now available with 50+ cut scenes!” so I don’t have to pay RM11 to watch a severely butchered movie.

2) Talking loudly in the cinema: Machaohai can the two obnoxious Chinese individuals speaking in Cantonese sitting right behind us yesterday night shut the fuck up. Asking really stupid questions loudly like “How come so fast start already, no ads or no trailers?” when you are fifteen minutes late is really beyond me. Making obtuse comments loudly like “Aiyah shouldn’t watch this movie lah so boring” while exchanging a lively banter while the movie is still going on or has yet to end is fucking insensitive and rude. Get out from the cinema lah if it’s so boring we don’t need nor want to listen to your Ah Beng personas talking.

Seriously. I thought this being an 18+ movie would remove noisy children from the cinema, but apparently there are also adults who probably don’t have the word ‘courtesy’ in their dictionaries.