Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Ben Affleck's directing debut, adapted from Dennis Lehane's novel, begins as a missing-child case in Boston's Dorchester and builds to one of the hardest choices in modern American crime cinema. Without giving it away, the film asks whether doing what the law requires and doing what is best for a child can be two different things, and how far you would bend for either. Amy Ryan's Oscar-nominated turn as the girl's mother makes the dilemma impossible to judge from a comfortable distance.