Review 329: Gone Girl
Based on the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) becomes an American legend when his wife Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) suddenly disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary. The police and general public suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He claims that isn't true.
So what did happen to Nick's wife and is he innocent?
The plot is engrossing, thought-provoking and keeps you on the edge of your seat till the last shot.
It lures you in with it's character driven mystery and
I was literally invested in everything that happened on screen from beginning to end. A prominent subtext in this film is role playing: Everyone is playing roles and performing for each other or themselves.
It keeps us as an audience on the edge of our seats waiting to see what happens next.
I was really interested in how Nick was gonna cope/solve the situation and what had become of Amy - just as he's trying to do the same.
As well as being a tense, gripping and exciting thriller, it is also a film about dishonesty, the media, the economies effects on marriage and the way people perceive one another.
Dishonesty: Throughout the movie, the characters lie to one another and the audience about the various affairs they have and disappearances. Nick and Amy were supposedly happy together at some point but they lost their jobs in the Great Recession and... well, it was all downhill for their relationship from their. From that point onwards, they develop conflicting views over who's to blame for their deteriorating relationship.
The Media: What Gone Girl basically shows is that the media is vicious and only interested in the story, they make implications that Nick murdered Amy and as a result he appears guilty before a trial occurs. The media does these things because they want to get peoples attention and sell newspapers and this movie does a clear and very precise examination of this.
Fincher goes out of his way to portray the media as a heartless machine that is only focused on trying to get masses of people to agree with it's perspective. In this case being that Nick was the culprit in his wifes murder.
Gone Girl shows how easy it is for people to be led to believe something, especially if we see it on TV. There's an inherent cultural bias for people to believe what they are told when it comes from someone in a power position. People believe that new anchors are there to provide facts when in fact that might not be true.
The economies effects on marriage: Another thing Gone Girl does so well is it captures the sense of bankruptcy that people and communities feel when the economy collapses.
Not only have Nick and Amy lost their jobs during the Great Recession and have moved from New York City to Missouri which is blited by unsold houses and businesses, but their marriage goes downhill, they become unhappy and start having affairs. If the economy goes down it can have a profound effect on couples and puts them under strain, they can get into debt, they can argue about who is spending what and why. The two of them blame each other for their problems, neither of them are able to find a middle ground.
The way people perceive one another: What this movie shows is that people aren't always what they seem. Peoples views of others change and as the film goes on and the mystery thickens, Nick and Amy's views of each other change.
Director David Fincher's direction is tense and precise, he frames each scene as though it were a crime scene. The cinematography is magnificent and captures the beauty and atmosphere of the Missouri setting, the production design is splendid, the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is marvellous, the costumes are terrific, the locations are fabulous (the Missouri setting makes the movie seem natural), the make up is rich, the suspense/tension is killing, the lighting is simply marvellous (which is to be expected from a David Fincher film) and the ending was excellent.
The acting is sublime, Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are stellar in the film,
Affleck is fantastic here as Nick Dunn, he's a vulnerable, tortured man who's under a lot of pressure from the media and all the accusations thrown at him. He's determined to find his wife and learn what happened. Affleck is also excellently enigmatic in this film, we can also never tell wether he's lying or not.
Over the course of the film, the most important thing for Nick isn't finding Amy but realigning his public image because the media is damaging it for the sake of drama.
Pike gives a cold and delicious performance as Amy. On the outside she appears to be happy in her marrige to Nick, a loving, faithful wife and a successful children's author but she in fact brewing under the surface and Pike plays both of these personas and bounces back and fourth between the two with masterful skill.
Neil Patrick Harris gives a calculatingly, mysterious performance as Desi, Amy's ex boyfriend, he's wary and is one of the many people who is against Nick and it's great to see a comedian pull of a serious performance.
Tyler Perry is surprisingly good in this movie playing Tanner Bolt, Nick attorney and that's saying a lot considering all the rubbish he's done in the past ahem Madea! Bolt is absolutely committed to doing everything he can to help Nick in his case to prove his innocence and Perry really does come across as a man you can trust and someone you'd want on your side.
Carrie Coon is also very strong in this film playing Margo "Go" Dunne, Nick's sister.
Throughout the film, she acts as Nick's support system and his confidant as the investigation into Amy's disappearance goes on. She's also the person who puts Nick in his place when he gets out of control
Margo is person to whom Nick is the closest emotionally as well as the only person he can trust in this situation.
They about each other because they've lived such similar lives, they've had to deal with some hardships which has made their relationship stronger.
They relate to one another because they're so similar.
Kim Dickens is terrific playing as Dt. Rhonda Boney, the detective who is investigating Amy's disappearance, you is ruthless, clever, intelligent, resourceful and quick thinking which is cool.
And it's great to have a member of authority who is investigating the crime whom we can get behind and a strong female presence in the room.
Missi Pyle is also very strong playing Ellen Abbot a TV show host, from her you get a lot of what a person in the media would be like, because she's inquisitive, nosey and clever, she knows to push the right buttons to get the information she needs and Pyle does that really well.
Gone Girl is not only one of David Fincher's best films, but dare I say also one of the best films about marriage, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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