Movies: Gone Girl

Score:  **** out of ***** (B+)

Long Story Short:  Acclaimed director David Fincher takes on perhaps the hottest book of the past few years, Gone Girl.  The film boosts its hype factor by starring Ben Affleck in the lead, but this doesn't backfire as he, as well as costar Rosamund Pike, is great.  A crackling yet nuanced picture of a marriage - and the growing investigation into the disappearance of the wife - emerges early, before getting swallowed up by the big "reveal" not even half way through.  It thus remains entertaining, but surrenders its chance at greatness.


Somewhat unintentionally, I've had my longest delay between blog posts.  September is always a bad month for movies, but this year was particularly bad and I have been quite a bit busier than usual anyway.  Now that the fall film season has kicked off, I intend to make regular trips to the theater - and write regular reviews on this blog.  Gone Girl was one of the most anticipated films of the year, it being the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's wildly popular 2012 novel.  I knew very little of the plot (just as I wanted), but it seemed like an interesting idea.  The Rotten Tomatoes score (87%) sealed the deal.  Gone Girl was directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network, etc.), and stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

Warning:  while I'm not going to spell out the whole plot in my synopsis, I will be writing about "surprises" in later sections that are necessary to review the film.  I also have not read the book, so if you have read it you may find some differences to which I'm ignorant.  Proceed with caution!

Nick Dunne (Affleck), owner of a bar in a small Missouri town, receives a call from a neighbor on the fifth anniversary of his marriage to Amy (Pike) and discovers that she has gone missing.  As the police arrive on the scene, evidence of a crime begin to emerge, and the police start to become suspicious of Nick.  He seems detached and unfamiliar with many details of Amy's lifestyle.  The case also soon attracts national media attention - not only is Amy a young, attractive blonde, but her parents are also the authors of a best-selling children's book (which used Amy as the basis of its main character).  The evidence against Nick continues to build - and still no one knows if Amy is dead or simply gone.

Gone Girl has an excellent cast that brings the thrilling story to life.  Ben Affleck plays the lead, Nick Dunne, and gives the best performance I've ever seen from him.  For the first part of the film, he plays Nick as a fairly normal guy who is silently and vaguely distressed about the situation.  The camera holds on him often, and he's obviously thinking things through - but exactly what that is, he camouflages well.  As the investigation zeroes in on him, and we see flashbacks to tumultuous times in his marriage, we also get a glimpse of his temper and frustration.  Rosamund Pike as Amy is even better.  She appears only in flashbacks in the first part of the film, but bursts onto the scene when the crucial "reveal" happens.  Put simply, Amy is a psychopath, and Pike manages to pull off each of her wildly different sides - though she's especially fascinating as a cutthroat (no pun intended).

There's also a strong supporting cast in this film.  Carrie Coon plays Nick's sister, who is his strongest defender and provides both some of the best humor and most powerful emotion in the film.  Tyler Perry makes for a very charismatic, high-priced celebrity defense lawyer.  Neil Patrick Harris is interesting (if a bit over the top) as a former boyfriend of Amy's.  And Kim Dickens is a no-nonsense, professional yet human presence as the lead detective in the case.

I'm not sure how to define Gone Girl.  Wikipedia lists it as a mystery, but I don't think it can be boiled down to one label.  I might instead go with marriage thriller - "marriage" for the portrait of a relationship (from both sides), and "thriller" for the craziness that begins around the half way point.  While both parts are entertaining, the film is much, much more effective with the former than the latter.  Watching the investigation unfold (which kicks off almost immediately) is fascinating, and the script wisely and effectively starts to weave in flashbacks about Nick and Amy's relationship.  The tension and mystery build really well - and then the reveal comes, and throws subtlety out the window.  The reveal is at least well timed, as the investigation - featuring Nick, his sister, the detective, and soon Nick's lawyer - transforms in parallel.  But the film is almost completely different after this, not just in what we know, but also in the style of the film itself.  Where the investigation and relationships were realistic in the first part, both of these become increasingly unhinged in the second part (especially Amy).  A final few notes.  The score is pretty neat, and stands out in some particularly chilling scenes.  And there is actually a pretty good (although often dark) sense of humor.

***

Gone Girl is an entertaining film with some excellent elements, but it ultimately bites off more than it can chew.  There's an interesting comparison to be made with last year's Prisoners, which is a better film (snubbed at the Oscars).  Both involve chilling mysteries of missing people, as well as important relationships (Prisoners is more about a family unit, rather than a marriage).  But Prisoners stays consistent and believable, even after its own shocking twist (actually twists).  If Gone Girl the movie is consistent with the book, plot wise, then I would lay the blame for its failures at the author's feet.  She had such an interesting set up and lots of options of where to go with it, but the twist is ludicrous (from the perspective of both the relationships as well as the investigation).  Instead of getting a a real, complex situation of husband and wife who both mean well yet hurt each other, Amy becomes the undeniable villain.  As a side effect, the ludicrous twist also causes the film to run significantly too long, just to try (but ultimately fail) to explain things.  After all that criticism, it is still an entertaining film, with some great performances and at least a standout first half.  But it missed a shot at greatness by abandoning its strengths and instead going for shocks.