Review: Gone Girl

Nick (Ben Affleck) comes home one night to find signs of a struggle (traces of blood included) and his author wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing. Cops Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit investigate, with the latter firmly and cynically believing that Nick has likely killed his wife. Both Nick and Amy are writers, and both currently out of work. Amy is kind of a celebrity, having been the inspiration for a series of children’s books about ‘Amazing’ Amy, written by her parents. So with Amy being such a beloved and known figure, there’s intense media scrutiny (largely in the form of a Nancy Grace-like TV host played by Missi Pyle) largely pointed at Nick. And as unsavoury details of their supposed marital problems surface (through Amy’s diary, documenting an abusive husband and unhappy marriage), Nick looks guilty as hell. He maintains his innocence however, and stays with his twin sister (played by Carrie Coon), who learns a few things about her brother that even someone as close as she didn’t know. Neil Patrick Harris and Scoot McNairy turn up as two of Amy’s ex-boyfriends (Harris a high school sweetheart), whilst Sela Ward is another TV host whom Nick turns to for a bit of good PR, and Tyler Perry plays Nick’s flashy lawyer. And that’s about all the plot synopsis you’re gonna get out of me. Believe me, you’ll thank me later.

 

Having not read the Gillian Flynn novel, I came to this 2014 David Fincher (“Se7en”, “Zodiac”, “The Social Network”) not knowing what to expect, except that it looked like Ben Affleck was kinda playing real-life sleazebag killer Scott Peterson. However, there’s a lot more going on here than that, as this is indeed a work of fiction, and a damn good, twisty yarn I must say.

 

Fincher got on my bad side early on here with opening titles that are too small and disappear way too quickly to read. So a big fuck you to Mr. Fincher there. I also have to say that at first, something didn’t seem quite right with Rosamund Pike’s casting. Ms. Pike just didn’t seem believable as an author, certainly not the kind of author she’s meant to portray in the film. She seems too frigid and refined to play the rather pretentious, cynical-sounding diary writer, let alone ‘America’s Sweetheart’. She’s too…British for that, if that makes any sense. I’m not sure who I’d have cast as Amy, to be honest (Amy Adams, perhaps? Charlize Theron would’ve been interesting too, but perhaps not sweet enough to pull off that aspect of her), and the longer the film goes on and the more we learn about Amy, a funny thing happened…Pike grew into the role. I still don’t get the Oscar nomination at all, and I believe she’s the weakest link in a very fine cast, but she gets a lot better the longer the film goes on. And ‘Amazing’ Amy sure is a fascinating, multi-layered character, that’s undeniable, and whilst I didn’t buy Pike’s delivery of it, the narration itself is interesting. How much of what we are hearing is reliable? That’s a question one asks quite a lot in this film.

 

The film (scripted by Flynn herself) starts out rather interestingly off-kilter. Everyone who knows Amy doesn’t seem quite worried enough about her disappearance, but not in any overt way, either. Ben Affleck’s character in particular seems cold and glib and pretty much pointing the finger at himself. It’s a feeling that something is not quite right just beneath the surface, and the film keeps taking twists and turns throughout to continually throw you off-kilter, which I loved (It’s hard to go into detail without spoiling anything. I can’t even really discuss the themes of the film, to be honest). It’s a nicely ambiguous film for the most part.

 

Ben Affleck can be George Clooney levels of smug at times, but that mixed with his handsome good looks and undeniable charm make him absolutely perfect for this kind of douchebag role. It’s one of his best performances to date, partly because he’s so damn hard to read. However, for me the film is stolen by the trio of Kim Dickens, Neil Patrick Harris, and Carrie Coon (The Nancy Grace parody is excellent too, and pretty blatant. Fucking loathe that woman, seriously. Sorry, but it’s true, she’s awful. Just look at the misinformed story she did on the WWE and death of Ultimate Warrior, for proof). Dickens plays a total cliché- the cynical cop- but plays it absolutely brilliantly, making her otherwise functionary scenes perk up considerably. She might just be the standout here. I can’t say I remember seeing Carrie Coon on screen before, but I’m certainly not going to forget her anytime soon now. Playing Affleck’s loyal sister, she’s really wonderful. In fact, their relationship is one of the most interesting things about the entire film. A lot of people cite Neil Patrick Harris as being miscast in this. Perhaps there’s something in the book that warrants this assertion, but based solely on the film, I think he’s terrific. He plays Amy’s loser ex-boyfriend as if Barney from “How I Met Your Mother” had no self-esteem and was kind of a creepy stalker (and with a touch of Artie Ziff from “The Simpsons” added for good measure). It’s a genuinely skin-crawling performance because Harris really is giving the character a lot of Barney…but with an underpinning of pathetic loser who may or may not be a psycho to boot. In smaller turns, Tyler Perry is perfect as a media savvy lawyer, and Scoot McNairy has a terrific cameo as one of Amy’s ex’s. Sela Ward, meanwhile, looks a bit less botox-y than the last time I saw her (as is Pike for that matter), which is good to see.

 

Mr. Fincher and cinematographer  Jeff Cronenweth (Fincher’s “The Social Network”) give us nice, low-level lighting throughout, and the film is thankfully not as filter-obsessed as other Fincher films. Fincher, on the evidence of one shot here, also appears to be a big fan of “Night of the Hunter”. If you’ve seen that film, you won’t miss the shot here.

 

A terrific yarn that keeps you guessing throughout, and casts Ben Affleck to perfection, whilst the supporting cast are also excellent. A fascinating mystery and a dark, deeply cynical film (right up to a frankly depressing ending), though I can’t speak to how it stacks up against the book. Whatever one might make of it, it’ll sure get you talking about it afterwards, which is never a bad thing in my view.

 

Rating: B