Gone Girl Review

Every time a beautiful white woman goes missing, Nancy Grace or one of those gossip show "journalists" is on the story and ready to accuse the husband of murder. This is not always the case, but it is a common media occurrence. The scenario is usually a beautiful woman going missing or is murdered, and the husband is the first suspect and the object of media speculation and condemnation. The film acts as an excellent satire on the media and post-recession America in general. Due to the twisty nature of the film's plot, this review will remain spoiler-free.

Photo courtesy of screenrant.com

Earlier this fall, the film Gone Girl was released in theaters. The film is based on the award winning 2012 novel by Gillian Flynn (the film was also adapted by her), The film stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris. The film is directed by David Fincher, with music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

The film tells the story of Nick Dunne (Affleck), a former New York column writer born and raised in rural Missouri (the home state of author Flynn) and his beautiful wife Amy (Pike), another writer from a very wealthy family who's mother wrote a popular children's book series about her titled "Amazing Amy". After being forced to move back to Nick's hometown in the wake of the 2008 recession, Nick and his sister (Coon) manage a bar in the economically-dying town while Amy leads a strange reclusive life at home. On the day of their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears from the house and an apparent crime scene is present. Slowly, Nick becomes a suspect as more details of their unhappy marriage come to light, and Nick must seek the help celebrity lawyer Tanner Bolt (Perry) to defend him against the media crusade led by Nancy Grace-esque gossip show hostess Ellen Abbot (Missi Pyle). At this point I will discontinue discussing plot details, as anymore will spoil the rest of the film's complex plot.

Courtesy of Rolling Stone

The performances of the cast were overall quite good, Affleck was able to effectively portray a simple Midwest man struggling with his public and at-home image in the face of tragedy. While Pike... well, I'll just let you see the film to judge for yourself, as giving too much information about her performance will spoil the plot. Surprisingly strong is Tyler Perry as the flashy yet brilliant attorney who genuinely wants to protect Nick from the possibility of the death penalty. With the strong leading cast, expect to see these names mentioned come awards season.

As a longtime fan of David Fincher, I was not surprised by his decision to direct this film. It has all the tenements he touches on, disturbing crimes, social satire, and a series of twists that are meant to shock the audience. After his last foray into the genre, 2011's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a film that was visually gorgeous, and headed by a strong cast, but lacking in story and the way the book material was adapted. This time he has almost corrected these missteps in Gone Girl, working directly with the author and creating from an American based story that feels more at home instead of foreign Sweden were somehow everyone speaks perfect English with poor imitations of Swedish accents.

Here is a link to Empire writer Ian Freer's review
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=138307

Two more strong points of the film would be the performances of relative unknowns Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens. Coon as the snarky/protective twin sister of Nick, and Dickens as the intuitive and witty homicide detective investigating Amy's disappearance. Both these performances stood out, as i have never seen these actors in films before, and would actually like to see both nominated for awards. Second would be the haunting and yet driving score by Reznor and Ross, two composers becoming welcomed staples of the Fincher-verse. Both soundtracks for The Social Network, and Dragon Tattoo are home runs to me, and seeing them knock another score out of the park makes them 3 for 3.

Another interesting note on the production aspect of the film would be the editing. The film was edited using the Adobe Cloud and its apps like Final Cut, and After Effects, two pieces of software I have used as a film student. According to SlashFilm.com, this is the first time this software has been utilized to fully to edit and visualize a film, were before it was only used for small touch up.

Although the ending is somewhat drawn out and a little flat, I would highly recommend this film, and cannot wait to see how it fares come awards season.

Gone Girl was released in theaters on October 3rd.