Gone Girl (2014) - SPOILER-FREE Review
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Directed by: David Fincher
Written by: Gillian Flynn
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens
Runtime: 149 min
Synopsis: In Carthage, Mo., former New York-based writer Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his glamorous wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) present a portrait of a blissful marriage to the public. However, when Amy goes missing on the couple's fifth wedding anniversary, Nick becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance. The resulting police pressure and media frenzy cause the Dunnes' image of a happy union to crumble, leading to tantalizing questions about who Nick and Amy truly are.
This is it. The last David Fincher's film I'll be able to review before Mank, his next masterpiece… I hope. I've been through Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network, and now it's time for Fincher's latest installment, Gone Girl. Clearly, Fincher loves to work with people he knows. Jeff Cronenweth has been his director of photography in half of his movies, same for Kirk Baxter as part of the editing team, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in the musical score. Even his production designer, Donald Graham Burt, has been around since Zodiac. However, Fincher always works with a different writer, and this time, he partners up with a debutant screenwriter, Gillian Flynn, author of the original novel that originates this adaptation.
Usually, when it comes to writers, I take this change of media with a grain of salt since writing a book isn't exactly the same as writing a screenplay (it's completely different, I was being generous). With that said, Flynn absolutely destroys my self-doubts, delivering one of the best scripts of 2014. From the exceptionally captivating, perplexing disappearance of Amy to the underlying theme about how press and media treat this type of news, Flynn's screenplay is impressively able to develop each and every narrative in the most perfect way possible. With a remarkable use of time/date stamps, the viewer follows in a detailed manner the events that build up to the tragic day through different perspectives, mainly Amy's and Nick's.
This story's greatest accomplishment is how it makes the press influence what the viewer thinks about the characters, just like in real life. Nowadays, people don't even click to read the full article and understand its context. A single headline, as far from the truth as it might be, is enough to start a worldwide online debate. The same goes for television networks, and their news shows: if it's on the national news program, then it must be true, people think. I may be wrong when I wrote the whole "change of media" matter before, but of this, I'm sure: take every news article you read with a grain of salt because most of the time, the full, true story isn't entirely revealed.
This takes me to Ben Affleck (Justice League, The Way Back) and what I consider one of the best casting choices of the respective decade. In case you don't know, Affleck has been pursued throughout his whole life by journalists who try their hardest to expose his personal life, no matter how disrespectful it may turn out to be. Nick goes through the exact same obstacle. There's non-stop news about Amy, and it only becomes a matter of time until Nick starts being accused of being a terrible husband, and ultimately the obvious killer, even though the press can't find a single proof. Affleck doesn't even need to incorporate a new character since he has the necessary life experience to offer an utterly brilliant performance. Definitely, one of my favorite actors working today.
Since I'm in the realm of performances, I might as well continue with Rosamund Pike (Radioactive). Her interpretation of Amy is almost the opposite of Affleck's, in the sense that the latter gives a seemingly simple yet powerful display, while Pike has a much more complex, layered role. She can be menacing and scary but also loving and kind. The puzzle surrounding her disappearance is mostly based on a perspective enigma, as the viewer is told the same story through different lenses throughout the first half of the film. Honestly, this is probably a career-best performance for Pike, who portrays a character of extremes, allowing her to demonstrate her jaw-dropping emotional range.
Carrie Coon (Margo Dunne) is another actress I've grown to deeply enjoy watching, and she's terrific as Nick's sister. Her chemistry with Affleck is spot-on, and I sincerely hope that one day she becomes one of the most coveted actresses in Hollywood. Tyler Perry (Tanner Bolt) is also pretty great as Nick's lawyer, but Kim Dickens is even greater as Detective Rhonda Boney, who partially plays the same role as the viewer by trusting that what she sees and hears is undoubtedly the ultimate truth. Flynn's screenplay is packed with twists and turns, some of them more surprising than others, but the third act saves an unexpected, shocking turn of events, leading to a powerful ending that will leave most audiences speechless, myself included.
Two minor issues. One of them, you probably have already figured it out since I left Neil Patrick Harris (Desi Collings) out of the cast compliments above. Harris is fine as the character he portrays, but I can't help but feel that he wasn't the right actor for the role. This is a classic Fincher movie: dark, somber, depressing, tragic, and with its own share of violence and blood. In fact, it possesses one of the most disgusting, disturbing uses of blood in a single scene I've ever seen. Harris is an excellent actor, but he stands out from the rest of the cast, and not in a positive way. Again, fine performance, just not the right role for him. The other problem is admittedly an irrelevant nitpick regarding a few details story-wise that stretch the believability of everything just a bit.
Final Thoughts
Nevertheless, this is still a phenomenal film, and it's another evidence of David Fincher's masterful visual filmmaking. Once again, Fincher works with his known crew members to create a sumptuous look and feel. With seamless editing, a memorable score, and fantastic camera work, Gone Girl is technically magnificent, but it's Gillian Flynn's debut screenplay that steals the spotlight. Boasting jaw-dropping twists, including an utterly shocking third act and respective ending, Flynn's narrative is incredibly engaging due to its remarkable structure and puzzling mystery, never losing an inch of excitement or interest. Ben Affleck is one of the best casting choices of the decade by interpreting a man whose life is deeply affected by the press and media, which should never be fully trusted (a clear and powerful message to the audience), while Rosamund Pike delivers her career-best performance with an emotionally devastating display. Despite the misstep of casting Neil Patrick Harris in such a dark movie and a couple of nitpicks regarding the investigation, everything and everyone else turn this into one of the best films of the 2010s.
