Gone Girl

Gone Girl (2014)

Producers: Leslie Dixon, Bruna Papandrea, Reese Witherspoon, et al.

Director: David Fincher

Rated: R for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language  
Runtime: 149 min

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

The first thing to do when reviewing a movie based on a book is to remove one's feelings about said book. Movies and books are separate forms of entertainment, what works in one may not necessarily work in the other. A movie is not reviewed by comparing it to the novel, it must stand on its own. Its merits and inadequacies in regards to a movie review are only the movie's and bear no relationship to the source material. If there's interest in it at a later date I might compare the two, but this is not the place for it.

With that out of the way, on to the movie!

Lets begin with the cast. Ben Affleck is the perfect Nick Dunne. He's charming and arrogant, at times you feel great sympathy for him, then he does or says one thing and the audience just can't stand the guy. Even after the midway point of the film, when one would think that the audience's perception of him would shift, he keeps walking that line between good and bad guy. Nick Dunne is just a guy, worse than some and better than some. Maintaining that image throughout the film is quite a feat from both David Fincher and Ben Affleck. Preventing the classification of the two leads into a familiar cinema archetypes is the most powerful part of the story.

That leads us to Rosamund Pike's Amy Elliot Dunne. It's very hard to talk about her character without getting into spoilers that might ruin the movie for anyone that hasn't read the book. When her casting was announced I was skeptical, sure she looked the part, but a lot was going to be required of her to play the character; things I hadn't really seen her do before. Those doubts were completely unfounded. Within the screenplay for this story she does everything required of her, she brings Amy to life just as she had to be to drive this film.

Another casting decision that had me scratching my head initially was Tyler Perry. No worries there either, after his first appearance and my “Oh look, there's Tyler Perry,” immediate reaction he became the character in my head. The remaining supporting cast all shined in their moments, without overshadowing the lead characters. David Fincher was David Fincher; doling out information in an inexorable crawl, causing the audience to feel like they're being pulled through the whole uncomfortable thing right along with Nick. There is a time about halfway through when the movie seems to slow down a little too much, treading water for fifteen minutes or so, then it picks back up. Aside from that one pacing misstep I never felt the need to check the time or wonder how much was left. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross crafted a score that felt as irresistible as the rest of the film, magnifying the tension in all the right places. Reznor's trademark industrial sound was a little overbearing at times, through no fault of his own, as the sound mix was a little off during some of the dialogue.

Gone Girl also contains some interesting commentary on life and the nature of the media. What should we fake, if anything, in a relationship to make it work? How does the media and public perception sway the course of an investigation and the lives of those affected? Why are we so willing to vilify people that we don't know, and about whom we know only those things that various news outlets have decided will boost ratings? All important questions that this film raises.

Conclusion: Great performances from everyone involved, with masterful direction, allow Gone Girl to elevate what initially seems like a run of the mill whodunit into something else entirely. Any quibbles I might've had are insignificant when held up against the movie as a whole. It is a relentless slow burn of drama and tension that leaves the viewer unsure of who to root for, or whether any of the characters even deserve your sympathy.

Rating: 8.5/10