[Because so much of the impact of Gone Girl is based on its plot twists, I will refrain from spoiling anything that has to do with the major plot twists.]
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is an out-of-work writer in an unhappy marriage who is contemplating his miserable life with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) in the bar they co-own on the morning of Nick’s fifth anniversary with his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). Though Nick and Amy were once wildly happy when they lived together in New York, Nick and Amy moved to the small town of North Carthage, Missouri in order to take care of Nick’s ailing mother and the move significantly hurt their marriage. When Nick returns home after hanging out at the bar, his wife is nowhere to be found and there appears to have been signs of a struggle in his home. He calls the police, led by Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) who begin investigating Amy’s disappearance. Based on Nick’s odd behavior following Amy’s disappearance, he soon becomes the primary suspect in the disappearance of Amy, and even without a body turning up evidence mounts that Nick murdered his wife. The story quickly makes national headlines and Nick is demonized as a wife-murdering monster on cable news programs despite evidence also mounting that there is far more to this story than meets the eye.
I know I’m going to be in the minority of this one, but Gone Girl is a return to the inconsistent David Fincher of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Zodiac rather than the genre-defying maverick of Se7en and Fight Club. Gone Girl is based on the very popular novel by Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the screenplay), but while the novel might work effectively on the page it hasn’t translated with the same power to the film. Seeing the narrative play out — with all of its conceits rendered visually — makes it more difficult to buy into them.
For example, one major issue is that Nick says and does things that he only seems to says and do because it helps throw off the audience from the truth. This is troubling from a narrative standpoint because he only acts this way because the movie script says so with no regard to logic. It’s far-fetched that an actual person in this situation — no matter what his relationship was to his spouse — would act this way knowing that he was the primary suspect to his wife’s murder. In other words, Nick acts suspicious because it makes the movie more engaging, but that’s not a good enough reason for the character to act this way.
About an hour into the film it seems like it will be wrapped up nicely in a few more minutes, but that’s not the case (after all, the film is 2 and a half hours long). At this point Gone Girl makes a logic leap that you’ll either be completely engrossed by or be completely unconvinced by. I was among the latter. In fact, I began to feel a bit self-conscious during the screening because I kept laughing at parts of the film which I wasn’t sure were meant to be funny. While there are beats that are meant to be funny, there are other parts that are seemingly played straight that I found hilarious, like characters’ shocking reactions to predictable events.
Also, despite my dissatisfaction with the film’s narrative, I was very impressed by the cast. Affleck, who has alternately been beloved and ridiculed in the media, is the perfect actor to play Nick. Neil Patrick Harris plays with his public image as a charming individual by playing a character who at first seems charming but in actuality has a darker side. Even Tyler Perry, who plays Nick’s calculating Johnnie Cochran-ish lawyer Tanner Bolt, is also excellent in his role (it’s his best acting performance by miles). As for Rosamund Pike — well, while I am sure she will get praise for the multifaceted nature of her performance from others, I was not impressed by her Stepford Wives-ish performance. It’s one of those rare performances that could be nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie, with views in both camps being equally valid. Aside from her, this is a great cast trying their best with material that’s not worthy of their efforts.
Personally, I was far more interested in Gone Girl‘s take on how the media manipulates stories than I was in the actual story. To me, it was fascinating to see the “spin” at work, and I noticed that the film itself engages in this spin (there are scenes that are depicted on screen that did not actually happen in the lives of the characters, which is a bit of cinematic cheating). The actual crime — or in this case, crimes — were almost like a means to an end to tell a story about the media. That made the crime narrative seem sloppy and unconvincing because it had to be filled with holes for the media to manipulate in the subplot. The plot holes in the final twenty minutes are so illogical that I’m still picking them apart in my head three days after seeing it.
Is Gone Girl a bad movie? Not necessarily, but it’s certainly not worth the time invested in watching it. I suspect it will have its fans — even Fincher’s lesser movies have diehard fans, but even if Gone Girl turns out to be a hit it won’t have the staying power of Fincher’s best films.
Rating: Despite great performances, Gone Girl is a disappointing attempt to manipulate an audience with material that doesn’t work the same on the screen as it does on the page (5/10).
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