Gone Girl
Gone Girl, a slow-burning, psychological thriller, is directed by David Fincher, with a music score by Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), so you know beforehand it’s going to be twisted. If you enjoy twisted, you won’t be disappointed. Gone Girl is also riveting, satiric, profane, gory, subtle, and sad.
The premise is a simple but powerful draw: a man’s wife is missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Where is she? Is the husband culpable or know more than he’s telling? Gillian Flynn, writing the screenplay based on her bestselling book, gives multifaceted and conflicting subjective viewpoints of the tale, each partner in a whirlwind marriage-gone-wrong working to protect themselves and the reality they want to create for themselves.
Ben Affleck gives one of his better performances as Nick Dunne, an average schlub who would be completely unnoteworthy were it not for this puzzling event. Tabloid journalists jump on and exploit it with glee. Rosamund Pike makes a career-changing role out of Amy Dunne, educated and rich, whose fortunes and relationship with Nick plunge during the recession. Pike is chameleonic in the role; at times she reminds you of Laura Linney, other times Veronica Lake. She’ll doubtless be in a Woody Allen movie a year from now.
Nick tells his tale to his supportive sister, played by Carrie Coon, one of the more levelheaded characters in the story. He tells it to the police, who increasingly suspect him of murder, and to the public and press, who support or spurn him based on the information they’re provided. As Nick’s self-contradictory story is told, Amy’s story is told in a diary voice over, giving her account of their up and down relationship.
The cast is rounded out by Tyler Perry, wonderful as a defense lawyer, Neil Patrick Harris as a creepy lover from the past and, especially, Kim Dickens (you may remember her as Sawyer’s partner-in-crime on Lost) as an astute and patient detective.
Gone Girl is beholden to Hitchcock films. The film’s trailer gives the impression Gone Girl is a remake of Suspicion (1941), but Gone Girl also contains a mid-film mind-tripping revelatory plot twist in the spirit of Vertigo (1958), and at one point in the film, Pike seems to be channeling Barbara Bel Geddes in Vertigo. That’s right, not Kim Novak, but Barbara Bel Geddes. Gone Girl isn’t just an homage, though, like Brian De Palma’s Obsession (1976) or Body Double (1984). Fincher has his own deliberate, painterly, clinical and cynical style; even the promo stills from the film look Fincheresque. Jeff Cronenweth continues his cinematography work here with Fincher, keeping Fincher’s look as consistent as Robert Burks did for Hitchcock.
Trent Reznor and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross’ score could be called industrial synth. It’s appropriate for the tone of the film, but it frequently seemed manipulative and occasionally obtrusive, in some cases confusing the viewer: Is the odd sound I’m hearing part of the story or part of the soundtrack? Film scores should support the visuals, not distract from them.
The filmed version of Gone Girl has been the source of some “controversy” online (to be fair, the novel fielded some of the same complaints) as critics are charging the film with misogyny. I can’t field the specific complaints without utilizing spoilers, but, without revealing plot points, it can be said that many of the characters in the film are as manipulative as the press and media the film satirizes. Misanthropic is a more accurate description of not only this film but many of Fincher’s, including his vile and nihilistic Fight Club (1999).
Gone Girl is currently the top selling movie in America, and if the packed showing I attended on a Monday at noon is an indication, film attendance at theaters isn’t going away soon.
—Michael R. Neno, 2016 Oct 6