Gone Girl is the 2014 mystery film directed by David Fincher of Fight Club, The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and is adapted from the 2012 novel of the same name by Entertainment Weekly journalist-turned-novelist Gillian Flynn.
It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon who equally played their roles to perfection in my opinion.
When Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears from her home on her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), finds himself at the centre of a media frenzy, his every little move interpreted as a sign of guilt and dishonour. Suspicions begin to arise that Nick murdered his wife, and his awkward behaviour is interpreted as characteristic of a killer. While he hides out at his sister’s (Carrie Coon) house, the no-nonsense detective, Boney (Kim Dickens), combs through his personal life, uncovering a trail of evidence indicating financial troubles and domestic disputes, a report indicating the purchase of a gun, and poorly concealed evidence of a struggle which all suggest Nick’s hiding something. Eventually, Nick is forced to seek out the services of Tanner Bolt (an excellent Tyler Perry), a larger than life lawyer who specialises in defending “wife-killers.” Yet still there’s no body or proof that Nick had something to do with his wife’s disappearance and something niggles at the audience that there’s more to this than we know.
Gone Girl most certainly isn’t a love story, but a movie about the way people can so easily manipulate and entrap one another.
In the first half of the movie we see Amy Dunne as the beautiful, doe-eyed girl who got caught up in the perfect whirlwind romance but as the movie progresses we see strains on the marriage. We begin to realise that this doe-eyed girl is capable of menace. She’s an ice Queen, passive-aggressive, manipulative, devious style of menace. The exact sort of menace you need to pull off the Amy Dunne in the second half of the movie. The Amy who’s not evil so much as cunning. The Amy you will come to hate.
Fincher’s style—think along the lines of motel-murder-scene lighting — adds perfectly to the puzzling and mysterious feel of the movie.
Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl became a sensation for its ingenious plotting and complex net of twists and the film does the exact same. It has the narrative logic of the film noir, with a mishandled, awkward, yet ultimately victimized and unfortunate male at its core, and Amy as the ultimate femme fatale.
The movie’s most alluring mystery is the question of what’s really going on in both husband and wife’s heads. Who is crazier? Who’s side are you on? Who gets the final revenge? All this remains unanswered, and it’s sickening. For this reason myself and the majority of viewers in the cinema last Friday night let out a sigh of sheer frustration as the credits rolled. For a film I liked so much I don’t think I have ever been as frustrated leaving the cinema and that is why Gone Girl gets a rating of 3.5/5 from me.
What the punters say
Margaret (54): “Gone Girl was good, I would give it a 4/5. I was a little bit disappointed with Ben Afflek’s acting and the way the film ended wasn’t great, but Rosamund Pike was outstanding as Amy Dunne – she definitely deserves an award for her role in the film.”
Michael (21): “I thought the first half of the film was very good, but the second half was a bit too unrealistic and long winded for me. I would give Gone Girl a 3.5/5.”
Seamus (57): “I thought it was a great film but the ending left the audience a bit high and dry, I’m wondering will there be a sequel but It’s hard to know.”
Leah (21): “I’ve only read the book, but I thought it was amazing. The reader knows what really happens throughout while the characters in the book still don’t so it was exciting to read. I cant wait to see the film.”