Gone Girl - Film Review - October 2014

Ben Affleck really does have a bum for a chin. Now this may not be the first thing you notice about the film Gone Girl, but as his jaw line does play a part in the story, it will certainly not be the last. In fact, your last thoughts will be the most difficult to predict.

As the bulk of the tale is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, cloaked in a conundrum, it’s hard to mention any details for fear of revealing the more important plot points. You have no doubt seen the trailer: Nick Dunne’s on-the-rocks marriage is put on hold as his wife, Amy, goes missing with signs pointing to foul play. It’s not long before the neighbourhood, spurred on by a spiteful media, begin to suspect the husband of committing the act himself. But like I said, to dig deeper would deprive you of discovering the twists and their counterparts, yourself.

What I can talk freely about is the cast. Whatever you think of our new Batman, he does put in an experienced and worn-thin turn as the suburban husband. If fact, his solid calm and unclear ends, mirror the very pace and sculpture for the film. The bit players, Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris, normally seen as comedians, fill out a committed and melodramatic cast. But it is Rosamond Pike, the preverbal Girl ‘Gone,’ who is the stand out. And, once more, for your own good, I will not brandish any details but to say if she does not receive an Academy nod come February, the system is seriously corrupt.

The real star here is Director, David Fincher. Clearly and wholly the most talented lens man working in Hollywood today. Gone Girlshares DNA with Fincher’s 2006 film Zodiac. There is a stillness and an emptiness that, with the help of Trent Reznor’s haunting score, is punctuated with sharp unease and the sure threat of violence. As a film maker, I have studied his technique avidly, but have neither the capacity nor the patience to recreate it. As this is his sixth book to screen adaptation, authors are no doubt writing tomes with his deft hand in mind.

So, without spoilers or much else really, Gone Girl is worth every cent of your ticket price. It is classically made; no CGI, no explosions, no 3D. This alone is reason enough to spend the 160 minutes soaking in it’s painful and razor edge grip. Go in without expectation. Whatever twists you do predict, and there will be a few, nothing will prepare you for the poisonous hollow of an ending that will stay with you well into the week.