MovieChat Forums > Gone Baby Gone (2007) Discussion > What made Doyle think Helene was a bad ...

What made Doyle think Helene was a bad mother?

posted 8 years ago by sunchick116-872-583383
9 replies | jump to latest

Maybe I miss this part but what made Doyle think she was a bad mother? Patrick and angle see it for themselves (supposedly. Still don't agree with Angie and Doyle) but what made Doyle take the baby?

[–] SBL84 8 years ago

Helene's brother Lionel believed she was a bad mother based on her drug use, the people she had in her life, and just general lack of attention towards Amanda. He conspired with Doyle and the detectives to fake Amanda's kidnapping and supposed death, while actually handing her over to the Doyles.

He specifically mentions an instance where Helene left Amanda in a hot car for 2 hours while she went off to go get high. Not sure why social services didn't get involved in the first place.

[–] evanmang87 8 years ago

I haven't seen the movie in a few years but was it ever explained why Lionel and Bea didn't just go to the police, courts, child services and make a case for Helene to lose custody until she turned her life around? It sounds like Bea was doing most of the child rearing anyway and surely it would of been a lot easier, less dangerous, and less illegal than an elaborate kidnapping/murder hoax that involves gangsters and corrupt police officers. Not to mention less cruel to Helene -- taking her child away from her as a consequence might finally convince her to clean up while kidnapping her child and convincing her she's been murdered would only probably cause her to further decline into drug addiction.

[–] Falzone_Salv 8 years ago

I think they went with the whole kidnapping approach due to the money that they might have kept in the end (didn't work out that way obviously).

[–] Gabe1972 8 years ago

Not Bea. Bea had nothing to do with it.

Time wounds all heels.

[–] keno4518 8 years ago

Very good question. I can't believe the amount of people who say Patrick should have left her with the Doyles. All the lying, set ups and staging these people did was insane

[–] blade101167 8 years ago

Not sure your first question is ever answered... but if it's anything like true life - at least in the UK - social services are occasionally/frequently seen as being very poor at their jobs. Children are taken away from good parents for the flimsiest of reasons while others are removed but returned to bad ones. There was a notorious case only a few weeks ago where a child was returned to their abusive family and later murdered by the father.

Your last point did get answered. Helene going on a date with a man she doesn't even know kinda tells us she won't change and we're led to believe she will eventually fall back into her old habits. Ultimately, our considerations are supposed to lay with Amanda rather than her mother who's been given another chance and doesn't appear to have taken it.

[–] geearf 7 years ago

Yeah I don't get it either, especially with Remy and co on their side... it would have been easy to send her to jail...

[–] MNRebecca (749) 6 years ago

Not sure why social services didn't get involved in the first place.

Can't speak for the 'hot car' past. In the present, there was a time factor. Helene was planning to move away with Ray (and Amanda) immediately. No time to involve authorities, who always being with an investigation if the child isn't being visibly physically or allegedly sexually abused.

[–] MNRebecca (749) 6 years ago

SBL84 wondered:

Not sure why social services didn't get involved in the first place.

And I responded: "Helene was planning to move away with Ray (and Amanda) immediately."

To clarify, there wasn't a problem 'in the first place' because Bea and Lionel were there to supplement Helene's shennanigans. Yeah, there was the occasional serious problem like the roasting, but they generally felt they were adequately compensating. Not worth risking that CPS would put Amanda with strangers (especially since her uncle had a record?).