Gone Girl (2014) Movie Review

Gone Girl Movie Review

Release Date: Oct 3, 2014

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• Director: David Fincher
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• Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller
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• Starring: Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, Rosamund Pike,Tyler Perry
• Summary: On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick's portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

Review: If you read the book, you'll be thrilled by David Fincher's movie, rife and lively with all the right deceptions. If you didn't, I envy your ignorance of Gone Girl's course.

Flynn gets a rare chance for a successful author to adapt her book for the screen, and that's the second-smartest choice made for this project. The first was hiring Fincher to direct, a filmmaker who at his best works with a clinical and cynical eye, perfect for Flynn's prose. It's a marriage made in heaven, presenting another stuck in hell. Or more accurately, Missouri.

That's where Nick and Amy Dunne moved from Manhattan after the recession cost their jobs as writers. Amy's trust fund, stockpiled by her parents' Amazing Amy books depicting a childhood she never had, is nearly depleted. Nick bought a break-even tavern, and Amy isn't a heartland woman. A once-dazzling couple begins to fizzle.

On their fifth anniversary Amy disappears, with signs of a struggle in their home. Naturally, Nick is suspected, and a media circus ensues, fueled by Amy's ersatz fame and Nick's apparent lack of concern.

From there, Gone Girl spins a dark and sexy mystery that Flynn masterfully pares

down for Fincher to film. Everything necessary is here, for plot mechanics and reader satisfaction. She tightens that bothersome climax, while retaining its acrid impact. This is a remarkable case of a movie's quality matching the book's.

Fincher's casting is again impeccable. Ben Affleck provides the right balance of hunk and lunk for Nick, his blankness as an actor working in favor of a character designed to be inscrutable. The marvel here is Rosamund Pike as Amy, a complex bundle of secrets. Pike's superbness in Gone Girl can't be fully described without spoilers, but we'll get more chances through awards season.

Same for practically anyone from the supporting cast, each given time to shine. The showiest — Tyler Perry, Missy Pyle, Casey Wilson — support the story's digs at deathwatch media, the Nancy Graces filling time and pockets with this week's crime of the century. The sturdiest are Carrie Coon as Nick's sister, and Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit as detectives eyeing Nick.

The time shuffle of Flynn's novel, between the present and Amy's diary entries, is Gone Girl the book and now the movie is on one level a satire of "the primal questions of any marriage," and the answers are chilling.

intact, and expertly edited by Kirk Baxter. Fincher occasionally uses the conceit for dark humor, such as flipping from Nick's marriage proposal to his DNA swabbing, as if that's part of the vows.

Gone Girl is a terrific movie, everything the book and its fans deserve. And what it deserves in return is the chance to surprise anyone who didn't read Flynn's book. Pass the popcorn; hold the egg salad.

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Comment, and tell me what you think about the movie.

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Source//Tampa Bay Times