Gone
Girl
Gone
Girl reminded me why I never
read books before they are turned into movies. Thanks to my
stubbornness (and laziness) I had the pleasure of being shocked and
awed by every twist and surprise in this film, so don’t let
anyone tell you anything about this movie before you go see it (I am
the exception to that advice, because I am not going to tell you
anything here to ruin the experience. I am on your side).
Ben Affleck stars as Nick – a husband who should be
celebrating his 5th wedding anniversary with his gorgeous wife, Amy
(Rosamund Pike). However, what appears to be a match made in heaven has
deteriorated into hell. The marriage is on the rocks in the worst way
possible, and when Nick returns home after getting out of the house to
clear his head, he finds a crime scene.
Amy is gone, and it appears a massive struggle has taken place. The
local police, led by Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens), want to get
to the bottom of it, and, as they probe deeper and deeper into the
crime scene and Nick’s story, much of it doesn’t
add up.
Was
Amy kidnapped?
Did Nick kill her?
Gone Girl
is a movie full of one jaw dropping revelation after another, and
director David Fincher makes the crazy plot come off as smooth and
taut as any Oscar winner, despite the story having the melodramatic
DNA of a Daytime Emmy nominee starring Susan Lucci. It might be
outrageous, but it is so much evil fun you eat it up. It’s
like junk food for your soul.
It all starts with an insane story, delicious characters and a
fantastic script from writer Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the book
this is all based upon. Flynn gives us a whopper of a tale going in
directions you can’t predict (don’t even try
telling me you saw some of this coming), yet, each new path feels so
perfect no matter how unfathomable and overwrought. The audience is
ready to suspend any disbelief needed and gobble up any tasty nugget of
sleaze presented by Flynn because it fits in with the nature of the
characters on the screen.
Affleck and Pike have walked into some of the best roles of their
careers, and meet the challenge with aplomb. Nick and Amy both are
equal parts lovable and detestable, which Affleck and Pike seem to
relish in.
Affleck is perfect as the highly suspicious guy we want to believe and
like, but, as we learn more and more about Nick, our emotions are
thrown all over the place. Flynn and Affleck play a bit of emotional
ping pong with the audience as Nick goes from good guy to bad guy to
good guy and back again too many times to count, with Affleck always
leaving the audience wondering what is going on in this
character’s skull with a sheepish grin here or frightened
glance there. It’s a marvelous complication.
Even Tyler Perry is hilarious as the defense attorney who voices the
audience’s feelings about the shenanigans we are witnessing
on screen in a bit of comic relief, while Dickens adds some life to her
stereotypical small town investigator full of rural wisdom. She avoids
letting Detective Boney become Matlock, and, for that, she deserves
more praise than you can imagine.
The entire cast can thank Flynn’s script for the fun. Kind of
dark, sometimes oddly comical, and always peppered with withering
assessments by the characters of the circus playing out around them, Gone
Girl becomes exactly what we
expect a
story like this to become in
modern day if it actually unfolded on our television screens.
Those extra details, like the reactions of local townsfolk, the
curiosity and fame seekers who emerge from the wood work, the
histrionics of cable television news coverage of the spectacle and the
strain on relationships with every new clue add to the landscape, but
Fincher never allows the background to overwhelm what really matters,
which is the story developing before our eyes. He never lets the
audience get distracted from the mental sleuthing we have going on in
our minds.
Flynn and Fincher only fail once to give us a shocking, massive plot
twist with enough explanation to make it feel right, but it was a
shocking, massive plot twist towards the end. Gone
Girl
doesn’t need to be wrapped up with a pretty little bow to be
perfect, but this left me hanging a bit too much. If I didn’t
know better, one could argue it was to set us up for a sequel.
Gone
Girl is rated R for a scene of bloody
violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language.
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