Gone Girl

Gone Girl

 (2014)

A Review by Grant Kanigan

Directed by: David Fincher

Written by: Gillian Flynn

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, 

             Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris

Rating: 14A
Release Date: October 3rd 

Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl
Merrick Morton - © TM 
© 2014 Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises.

    While there are no huge spoilers here, I did find it was best to approach Gone Girl knowing nothing about it, so keep that in mind before you read on.
     Like it or not, David Fincher is an Auteur. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines an auteur as "a filmmaker whose personal influence and artistic control over a movie are so great that the filmmaker is regarded as the author of the movie." Ever since his beginning as an original filmmaker with Se7en*, he's been showcasing gritty, twisted stories that either define originality, or redefine a genre. With Gone Girl, Fincher slyly subverts the mystery genre into something else entirely. Adapting Gillian Flynn's novel of the same name, this is a perfect example of a director completely suiting the subject matter; Gone Girl is the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo wanted to be. 
     Like a realistic version of Fincher's The Game in it's plotting, Gone Girl follows the alternating narration of Nick and Amy Dunne in the events leading up to Amy's mysterious disappearance. With the history of Amy's famous author parents, her natural beauty, and a culture that feeds off of violence and invasive gossip, Amy's disappearance soon becomes a national sensation, and a media circus. With the entire nation at his throat, Nick Dunne soon finds himself in a race to prove his innocence. The trouble is, he might not be as innocent as it seems. To reveal any more would be to give up some of the best moments of the film, and one of the greatest twists in years;  like a lot of Fincher's films, Gone Girl's twist is a doozy. 
     David Fincher is a master of style, and his latest film is no exception. Every clue, every shot and every reveal is carefully constructed, almost artificially, giving the film a creepy, insincere vibe. This vibe soon reveals itself to be a sly commentary on marriage in north american culture. Satirizing gender stereotypes, the idea of marriage itself, and the dualism of an outside personality versus an inner 'real' personality, Fincher has a full plate of material to skewer; this is one of the first Fincher films to have some laugh out loud moments, in the most cruel and unusual of places.

    Like all of Fincher's films, his casting is of the utmost importance. For a film based off of a book, he absolutely kills it, (his adaptation of Fight Club is the only instance I've found the film was better than the book). Ben Affleck is a personification of the fake looking and acting yuppie types most people think of when picturing a wall street banker. Affleck, fully aware of his public persona in reality, plays this character off in expert fashion. Tyler Perry, who has made some truly awful films, is the breakout supporting star here. As criminal defence lawyer Tanner Bolt, he roars with confidence, plays his lines as if his lawyerly brain is calculating them as he speaks, and is the only character to outwardly convey his disturbance with the unnatural aspects of his client's case. If this is Perry under another creative vision, I can't wait to see more of it. Neil Patrick Harris too, playing against type, radiates a social disconnect and weirdness that forces the audience to dislike him,  until we realize too late what a fool he really is. But all of this fantastic casting is blown away by the breakout star of the decade: Rosamund Pike.
     Pike, as the mysterious Amy, is able to flip personalities, change outlooks and become a different person at the drop of a hat. I haven't seen a performance this fearless since Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. Even when the script asks Pike to regurgitate cringe-worthy lines, she still nails the delivery. Pike's performance is worth the price of admission alone; if Jake Gyllenhaal's performance in Nightcrawler is the best male performance of the year, Pike's Amy is the best performance - across the board. Amy Dunne is the role many actors dream of, but few can fill. 

    While gone girl features some of the best acting, cinematography and music of the year, (Reznor's original score is his best yet, with equal parts suspense and menace), there are a few troubles script-wise. While Gillian Flynn is a superb author, writing a book and writing a screenplay are two different beasts. That isn't to say Flynn's screenplay is bad, no, it's one of the better scripts of the year and does a fantastic job of compressing her book into a 149 minute film. However, some of the lines do ring false. When Amy first meets nick she quizzes him on who she really is with a multiple choice exam, (the clip is below). The quiz worked well on the page as a fun bit of literary satire, but spoken out loud comes off as clumsy and awkward. Still, it's a testament to Pike that she makes it work. 
     Overall, Gone Girl suffers from the usual problems that arise adapting a book to screen, but under the powerful hand of David Fincher, a whip-smart cast, a well plotted screenplay and a mind-blowing turn from Pike, Gone Girl becomes one of the best adult thrillers in years. Original, witty and white-knuckle suspenseful, it's well worth a watch. 

Grant's Rating: 4/5

Rosamund Pike & Ben Affleck in Gone Girl: "Who Are You?"

*It should be noted that  technically speaking Fincher's first film is the critically maligned Alien 3. While I didn't think it was that bad, Fincher has himself disowned it citing the studio's mishandling of the production, and hijacking his footage to create their own final cut. For this reason, I believe Se7en is Fincher's true debut as a director. 
NOTE: While the Canadian ratings board has labelled Gone Girl with a 14A, it's definitely deserving of a hard R. This is not a film for the faint of heart.