Gone Girl [MA]

On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne unsuspectingly goes about his business having a drink at his bar and brooding about his unhappy marriage with his sister. When he gets home, it’s to find broken glass in the living room and his wife missing. All too soon after alerting the police, the mystery thickens as the case turns into a media circus with the common consensus being that Nick is the guilty party. With all the evidence against him, the struggle to prove his innocence gets dangerous, particularly with his hometown of Missouri still having the death penalty. 

Writer Gillian Flynn adapted this movie right from her novel of the same name and I am seriously so keen to get myself a copy of the book right now. Being the massive loser I am, I decided to take myself to the movies yesterday during a 4-hour gap in my uni timetable and Gone Girl was the best that the cinema could offer. I’ve often found that movies you go to see without any idea as to what they’re about always turn out to be the more enjoyable ones. I was late to my tutorial because I was so desperate to find out how things ended with this flick! 

A bit Silence of the Lambs, a bit Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl is a captivating thriller where significant events are slow to unfold, but once they do it’s like being in a headlock that gradually tightens around the neck and takes a shot at the ribs or kidneys. Some of the unforeseen twists of the plot are really confronting and there’s a reliance on the macabre and slightly sadistic side of human nature (the unconscious ‘death-wish’ or thanatos as Freud would label it) that is played upon to a certain extent. I really enjoyed this film: it’s shocking and sick and scary, but compelling and you can’t look away even in its most repelling moments! 

On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne unsuspectingly goes about his business having a drink at his bar and brooding about his unhappy marriage with his sister. When he gets home, it’s to find broken glass in the living room and his wife missing. All too soon after alerting the police, the mystery thickens as the case turns into a media circus with the common consensus being that Nick is the guilty party. With all the evidence against him, the struggle to prove his innocence gets dangerous, particularly with his hometown of Missouri still having the death penalty. 

What Flynn has done is rearrange the thriller/mystery genre. The story is a fusion of the mystery/detective novel and the battle of the sexes (just taken to a whole new extreme). What’s most captivating about the whole thing is the fact that there is little to no closure in any of the plot lines as well as there being very little apparent drive. It’s very hard to see why the central characters are behaving in the way they are and the motives of their actions might as well be irrelevant. THAT is what makes the story so creepy and thrilling: the unknown and the unreadable! It’s a wonderful ploy! 

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are our two ‘romantic’ leads for want of a better word and they’re actually pretty good together. What’s brilliant about them is that they don’t really seem to have a good chemistry and they both begin the film in a completely different way to how they come to be seen in the end. They are perched perfectly on either end of the spectrum, not letting the scale tip slightly but violently and only when the story allows it. 

Affleck, who I have to admit I have a real soft spot for even when he’s playing a total dick, toes a fine line here. He’s unsettlingly cool and rational about the whole missing wife thing, then slowly transcends through the realms of masochistic treasure hunt, personal vendetta, and simple unfaithful husband. There’s a strange solemnity and coolness that’s consistent throughout each change in his character as the plot develops and it’s captivating to watch. 

Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne on the other hand begins the film as the unique girl who stands out in a room. She’s unlike anyone and exudes this spiritedness that’s enticing. Her character changes throughout the film too, so much so that by the end no one is in her corner (I doubt her own parents would be given they knew her true character). I don’t want to give too much away in this regard, but I’m telling you her performance is both enticing and repelling. It’s scarily amazing. 

At this point I also want to give a shout out to Trent Reznor who was responsible for the soundtrack. We heard what we could do in The Social Network and here he delivers again with a unique and really eerie soundtrack that seems to be primarily composed of vibrations, phone rings, ominous beeping, and other technological percussions. It’s really cool! 

Starring Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, David Clennon, Lisa Banes, Emily Ratajkowski, and Missi Pyle, Gone Girl is a frighteningly captivating film that’s filled with deception, betrayal, love, revenge, drama, and suspense. Although I can see traits in common with other stories that have made significant cinema, there is really no other film like this about (that I’ve seen) and it’s for this reason, amongst others, that I recommend it.