Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl was a huge hit two summers ago. While the plot of the novel may not have been drawn from any of the real-life cases about some chaotic marriage thrown into chaotic crimes of passion, it was highly praised for the plot twists and the unreliable narration techniques. This year, the reputable director David Fincher, who has created masterpieces such as Se7en, Zodiac and The Social Network, will be transforming the novel into the silver screen with Flynn herself handling the screenplay. I have to say that I will always be impressed by Fincher’s works and while it may not be his best works ever, Gone Girl is still one of the best movies I have seen this year. Undeniably, the collaboration between the two great minds is just deadpan accurate in hitting those tones, pace and suspense.
Gone Girl is a contemporary psychological thriller that revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), a magazine writer who is more charmingly associated with “Amazing Amy”, the inspiration for a series of children’s books written by her parents. On the day of their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who is also a writer and a bar owner, goes back home only to find his wife missing from their suburban home with potential signs of foul-play. After displaying a string of erratic behaviour and loose alibi, Nick quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. With the media frenzy is beginning to take place over the case, Nick insists that he is not responsible for Amy’s disappearance and maintains their healthy marriage relationship. But as days go by, more dirty (dark) secrets about Nick and their crumbling relationship emerge as Amy’s diary paints Nick as an unfaithful and short-tempered husband. Did Nick really kill Amy?
Gone Girl, once again, plays out to cement Fincher’s trademark in setting up a meticulous, diligent and suspenseful thought-provoking thriller. Whether it is a biopic (The Social Network), procedural (Se7en) or journalistic investigation (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Fincher is certainly a great storyteller and photographer. Working with the materials drawn up by Flynn, Fincher uses his immaculate skills into effectiveness to tell a story of Nick and Amy. The first act of the movie requires you to travel back and forth between the events after the disappearance in the suburban of Missouri and a series of flashback set in New York, all of which are carefully constructed, compared and emphasized. The best is you cannot stop yourself from pondering, especially if you have not read the book before, who you should trust and who is correct.
By the time we reach the second act, that is when it seems amicable that more plot twists and plot suspension are coming on your ways. Fortunately, these never really seem to get you frustrated or annoyed by these new revelations, but they give more reason for you to hunger for more and the closure incoming in the third act. Gone Girl, nevertheless, is not at all an easy movie to swallow, given by the high amount of raunchy moments, dark motivations and bizarre psychoanalysis behaviours accompanying them. Rather, these elements do add into the depth of how far this movie can go to provide you with a taut and mesmerizing experience.
Rosamund Pike beats the odds, despite not really being the type of actress I imagined donning on this role. For Amy Dunne, Pike raises the performance to play the character very well by dispensing an ample amount of depth, daring and disturbing aura that correctly hit the requirements. It seems obvious that Pike may just deserve a nom for this and may well just be the performance of her life. The similar thing can also be said about Ben Affleck’s performance as Nick Dunne, which is truly reflected by the kind of juggling and dilemma between honesty and infidelity. Carrie Coon, as Nick’s sister Margo, is also charming with her well-balance repertoire of dark humour and flowing emotion.
While Gone Girl is not without its fair of flaws, particularly in the third act where the twists can be too absurd and the closure is rushed through, it is clear that the movie is a brilliant example of what an exceptional take on psychological thriller should be. Gone Girl is constructed with enough care and details, as well as being played with strong unnerving and haunting performances, to represent a strong connection between the source material and its outcome. A
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Gone Girl is a contemporary psychological thriller that revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), a magazine writer who is more charmingly associated with “Amazing Amy”, the inspiration for a series of children’s books written by her parents. On the day of their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who is also a writer and a bar owner, goes back home only to find his wife missing from their suburban home with potential signs of foul-play. After displaying a string of erratic behaviour and loose alibi, Nick quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. With the media frenzy is beginning to take place over the case, Nick insists that he is not responsible for Amy’s disappearance and maintains their healthy marriage relationship. But as days go by, more dirty (dark) secrets about Nick and their crumbling relationship emerge as Amy’s diary paints Nick as an unfaithful and short-tempered husband. Did Nick really kill Amy?
Gone Girl, once again, plays out to cement Fincher’s trademark in setting up a meticulous, diligent and suspenseful thought-provoking thriller. Whether it is a biopic (The Social Network), procedural (Se7en) or journalistic investigation (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Fincher is certainly a great storyteller and photographer. Working with the materials drawn up by Flynn, Fincher uses his immaculate skills into effectiveness to tell a story of Nick and Amy. The first act of the movie requires you to travel back and forth between the events after the disappearance in the suburban of Missouri and a series of flashback set in New York, all of which are carefully constructed, compared and emphasized. The best is you cannot stop yourself from pondering, especially if you have not read the book before, who you should trust and who is correct.
By the time we reach the second act, that is when it seems amicable that more plot twists and plot suspension are coming on your ways. Fortunately, these never really seem to get you frustrated or annoyed by these new revelations, but they give more reason for you to hunger for more and the closure incoming in the third act. Gone Girl, nevertheless, is not at all an easy movie to swallow, given by the high amount of raunchy moments, dark motivations and bizarre psychoanalysis behaviours accompanying them. Rather, these elements do add into the depth of how far this movie can go to provide you with a taut and mesmerizing experience.
Rosamund Pike beats the odds, despite not really being the type of actress I imagined donning on this role. For Amy Dunne, Pike raises the performance to play the character very well by dispensing an ample amount of depth, daring and disturbing aura that correctly hit the requirements. It seems obvious that Pike may just deserve a nom for this and may well just be the performance of her life. The similar thing can also be said about Ben Affleck’s performance as Nick Dunne, which is truly reflected by the kind of juggling and dilemma between honesty and infidelity. Carrie Coon, as Nick’s sister Margo, is also charming with her well-balance repertoire of dark humour and flowing emotion.
While Gone Girl is not without its fair of flaws, particularly in the third act where the twists can be too absurd and the closure is rushed through, it is clear that the movie is a brilliant example of what an exceptional take on psychological thriller should be. Gone Girl is constructed with enough care and details, as well as being played with strong unnerving and haunting performances, to represent a strong connection between the source material and its outcome. A
Numerical Rating (In case you are also interested):
Story: 4.5
Casts: 5.0
Cinematography: 5.0
Effects: 4.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 18.7/20.0
Story: 4.5
Casts: 5.0
Cinematography: 5.0
Effects: 4.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 18.7/20.0
Trailer:
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Gone Girl
Casts: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Dickens
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Gillian Flynn
Rating: 18
Release date: 11 December 2014
Running time: 149 minutes
Casts: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Dickens
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Gillian Flynn
Rating: 18
Release date: 11 December 2014
Running time: 149 minutes
