The last David Fincher movie I saw was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Like Gone Girl, that film was an adaptation of a novel I loved, and when I saw it, I was mesmerized. So when I went to see Gone Girl, I had high expectations. This movie did not meet those expectations - it surpassed them.
I wrote about the novel in 2012, so if you want a basic plot summary, you can find it here. The movie follows the plot faithfully and manages to turn that incredibly tricky literary narrative into cinematic dynamite. This is due to the screenwriter being Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the novel and is therefore well-equipped to find the best way to intertwine two conflicting stories with flashbacks and deceptions galore. I cannot imagine what it must be like to watch this movie if you've never read the book (it is probably akin to the sheer joy I experienced when I read the book and came to the big reveal halfway through), but despite having read the book, I found this movie incredibly engaging. At two and a half hours, I worried it would be too long, but I was riveted throughout and fascinated to see these incredibly twisted characters that had only existed on the page suddenly come to life on the big screen.
Let's talk about those characters: Nick and Amy Dunne are the poster children for the worst marriage ever. They have their flaws (some slightly more extreme than others) and as the tale of their romance unfolds, you get to glimpse what brought them together and then drew them apart. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are impeccably cast in the lead roles - Affleck captures the weird deadpan aloofness of Nick, who seems incapable of reacting appropriately when his wife goes missing, while Pike is beguiling and then terrifying as the inscrutable Amazing Amy. Neil Patrick Harris has a strangely creepy turn as Desi Collings, an ex-boyfriend who can't resist Amy's pull, while Carrie Coon (who did some amazing work in The Leftovers) plays Nick's twin Margo, a funny, sarcastic woman who is the only truly sympathetic character in the entire movie. Tyler Perry does an excellent job as Tanner Bolt, the lawyer who specializes in "wife killers," while Kim Dickens is marvelous as the suspicious and diligent Detective Boney who uncovers more than she can handle about this mystery.
Gone Girl tells such a brilliant story that there is no way it could have been a mediocre movie. However, in the hands of David Fincher, it is a sublime film, a psychological thriller that creeps you out and amazes you with every twist and turn, yet maintains a black humor throughout. There are laughs to be had at various points in this movie, almost to allow the audience some room to relax before the next gripping set of scenes unfold. The hypnotic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is always pounding in the background, getting under your skin and making your hair prickle at all the right moments, driving the maddening urgency of this film until it reaches its epic conclusion. Like all of Fincher's films, the cinematography is crisp, haunting, and dark, vividly capturing the mood of this small town and the tragedy as it unfolds. Each scene is filled with shadows and secrets, clues lurking and waiting to reveal themselves in due course to lend yet another manic twist to this tale.
Like the book, the movie is a treat that leaves you thrilled at what you've witnessed, yet also slightly appalled. Fincher was the perfect director to capture the dark and bizarre world of Gone Girl; thanks to his cast and crew, he has managed to create a masterpiece.
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