Director: David Fincher
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
Release Date: October 3, 2014
Three years ago, director David Fincher adapted another best selling novel onto the big screen with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and elevated the novel as much as the source material allowed him too. Perhaps if the novel focused less on the violence and more on the investigation, Fincher would of had more to work with. Gone Girl does not give those same limitations. Gillian Flynn's best selling novel Gone Girl carefully reveals the peeling of each layer of its mystery, as if you needed a scrap piece of paper while you read to keep track with each character's movements. Now for readers who have kept their scrap paper patiently and excitedly waiting for the adaptation of the film are going to be quite upset as the the adaptation will have a new third act that Flynn personally wrote just for the film. That alone can scare anticipated viewers but the only thing they should fear is their marriage turning out anything like Amy and Nick Dunne's.
On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
As I walked out the theater from seeing Gone Girl, I was asked from a stranger what the film was about. That my ladies and gentlemen, was the hardest question I was asked that night. Not because I had no idea what I just saw but it is almost impossible to describe the plot without spoiling it. Fincher keeps you guessing for the first hour of the film before it takes the sharpest u-turn that I have ever seen, pushing the film in a new direction. Even with a new direction almost half way into the lengthy 145 minutes length film, Fincher is still assembling a puzzle which image doesn't get completed until the final minutes.
Time is not relevant in Gone Girl as Flynn creates a fractured time scheme within her novel then Fincher and herself were able to translate perfectly for the big screen. The film starts off on Nick and Amy's fifth anniversary. As Nick arrives back home after a drive he finds his house looking like a crime scene and his wife is missing. As the police arrive and start investigating the house for any clues, the viewers are given the first of many flashbacks of different stages and points of Amy and Nick's relationship. The flashbacks begins with happy moments but slowly starts focusing on the fall out and their fall out was steep. In fact, we find out that Amy has kept a diary over the years which details her growing fear that husband might be planning to kill her. As the investigation continues, Nick goes from tragic husband to the number one suspect.
Affleck and Pike could have not been anymore perfect as Nick and Amy. Affleck was perfectly cast as a handsome, people-pleasing but mischievous husband. He is strong minded man but is not as equally as smart. As he is a man always batting as if he is down a run coming into the bottom of the ninth. Nick has made a lot of mistake within his marriage and has lied to everyone he has ever loved, not just his wife, but does Nick have what it takes to kill "the love of his life"? Pike on the other hand is a perplexed, extravagant, placid woman who was the inspiration of a popular children's book Amazing Amy written by her parents. But is Pike always at such ease due to her calmness or is because of her sharpness? The supporting cast is just as strong but don't be mistaken, this picture is all about Affleck and Pike.
Gone Girl is a treat no matter if you have read the source material or not. If you haven't read the book, you will be in store for quite a surprise. If you have, you will be pleased with how the movie was adapted onto the big screen. Either way, you will walk out the theater with an unsettled feeling about what marriage is really about as this film covers one of the most gruesome crimes of America; marriage.
Labels: 2014, Ben Affleck, david fincher, Full Movie, Gone girl, Movie Review, Neil Patrick Harris, Rosamund Pike
