David Fincher is one of the absolute best directors
currently working today in Hollywood. Sure, his career may not have gotten off
to a good start when he was hired to direct ‘Alien 3’ but that movie isn’t his
fault. He was stuck in a terrible situation working on a movie with an
infamously hellish production where the studio vetoed every major decision he
had. It was such a disaster for Fincher that it’s completely understandable why
he doesn’t view that film as ‘his film’. Fortunately that wasn’t the end of his
career as since then, he has yet to make a bad film; ‘Se7en’, ‘Fight Club’,
‘The Social Network’, the list goes on and on. For his newest film, Fincher
takes on his second straight book-to-film adaptation in a row (after 2011’s
‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’) with ‘Gone Girl’, based off of the
best-selling novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the film’s
screenplay. With ‘Gone Girl’, Fincher delivers what may just be his darkest
film to date. After all, if there’s one thing he is known for, it’s for making
incredibly dark and pessimistic films and this film is no exception. But it’s
also an incredibly compelling and sometimes darkly comic mystery thriller that
features a terrific cast headlined by its two leads. This makes ‘Gone Girl’ yet
another great entry in Fincher’s prestigious post ‘Alien 3’ filmography… even
though it is quite messed-up at times.
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and Amy Elliott (Rosamund Pike)
first meet a party and almost immediately develop a romantic connection. They
soon marry and two years later, they move from New York to Nick’s hometown in
Missouri when his mom is stricken with cancer. On the day of their fifth
wedding anniversary, Nick returns home after work to find Amy missing as well
as signs of an apparent struggle. The police immediately start investigating
into the disappearance and possible kidnapping as the case makes headlines
nationwide due to the fact that Amy is the inspiration for the best-selling
book series ‘Amazing Amy’ written by her parents. However, as the days go on
with no sign of Amy, things suddenly take a dark turn for Nick when certain
evidence starts to paint him as a possible suspect, revealing that his marriage
wasn’t as happy as it looked. As he slowly becomes ‘the most hated man in
America’, Nick must find a way to prove to everyone that he didn’t kill his
wife. And really, that’s as far as I can go in terms of the film’s plot because
otherwise I would be giving away key plot-points.
Pretty much as soon as the film started, I was immediately
hooked by the film. That’s usually the case with Fincher’s films; even when
they are nearly three hours long, they always hold your interest from beginning
to end. This one in particular really shines because… well, of how messed up it
is. With that said, I want to note that I went into this film having not read
the book so I didn’t have any idea of how this story was going to play out and
as a result, the film was much darker than I expected. Then again, this is a
David Fincher movie so that’s not too surprising. But at the same time, as it
is also expected from a Fincher film, the story is incredibly compelling and
the film is incredibly well-shot. It’s also darkly comic at times and is a
biting satire of various aspects of our lives, like how the media interprets
certain events without knowing everything about what’s really going on (as
shown via the character of Ellen Abbott (Missi Pyle), a TV host who paints Nick
out to be a ‘sociopath’ given his behavior regarding the whole case) and how we
as an audience are influenced by this or how the economy can have an effect on
a marriage, as at one point Nick and Amy argue over Nick’s spending habits after
they both lose their jobs. This all makes ‘Gone Girl’ one of the best written
screenplays of this year so far. As for how faithful this film is to the book,
from the perspective of someone who hasn’t read the book, it seems pretty faithful
right down to the fact that it retains the controversial ending of the book
that was allegedly changed by Flynn herself so that it wouldn’t be spoiled.
The film’s cast is pitch-perfect, particularly in regards to
its two leads. As Nick, Ben Affleck is perfectly cast in the role of a man who
becomes highly scrutinized by the media, which of course is something that
Affleck experienced quite a lot in not only the years before his big comeback
in 2007 but even recently after he was cast in ‘Batman v. Superman’. Here he
gives the best performance of his career. But ultimately this movie belongs to
Rosamund Pike as Amy. Like I said before, I hadn’t read the book going in and I
didn’t realize how complicated of a character Amy really was. Going in, I
thought she was just going to be the innocent victim but, without really giving
anyway here, it turns out that she’s not as innocent as we thought. Amy’s
transformation over the course of the story is fascinating and Pike absolutely
owns the role. I’ll be genuinely shocked if she’s not nominated for Best
Actress at this year’s Oscars because this is one of the best performances that
I’ve seen this year. Affleck and Pike lead a talented cast which also includes
Neil Patrick Harris in a very much against type role as one of Amy’s
ex-boyfriends, Tyler Perry as Nick’s attorney, Carrie Coon as Nick’s twin
sister, and Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit as the two lead cops in the case of
Amy’s disappearance.
‘Gone Girl’ is, in many ways, a very messed-up movie and yet
it manages to be an incredibly compelling mystery story which of course, as a
director, is where Fincher is truly at his best as proven through films like
‘Se7en’ and ‘Zodiac’. But in all seriousness, I legitimately did not expect
some of the dark turns that the story took, particularly in regards to Amy and
the journey her character takes in this film. The marketing thankfully hasn’t
given any of this away so those who go in who haven’t read the book will
certainly be surprised by the dark turns that this story takes. As for those
who have read, it seems like it stays true to the book, even featuring the same
ending and while I may be in the minority on this, I kind of admire the ending
for being just as messed up as the story; in other words, I think it actually
fits rather perfectly with the tone of the film. In short, ‘Gone Girl’ features
great direction from David Fincher, a terrific cast headlined by Ben Affleck
and Rosamund Pike giving the best performances of their careers, and a
smartly-written dark and satirical screenplay by author Gillian Flynn. Is this
Fincher’s best film? That may be up for debate at the moment but one thing is
for certain; Fincher’s hot streak following his initial mishap of ‘Alien 3’
continues with yet another outstanding film.
Rating: 5/5!
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