David Fincher enjoys plot twists more than M. Night Shymalan. At first glance, Gone Girl (2014) seems a return to the days of The Game and Fight Club, an intricately constructed thriller sabotaged by last-act stupidity. But this adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel surprises not so much for its story, but morphing into a completely different film.It's impossible to discuss Gone Girl without massive spoilers: I'll do my best, but some story elements may slip out. You've been warned.
Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) runs a bar in North Carthage, Missouri with his sister Margo (Carrie Coons). His life's upended when wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) disappears. A media circus ensues: Amy inspired a series of children's books, and her doting parents (Lisa Banes and David Clennon) organize a search effort. Nick's seemingly callous reaction turns friends and the press against him, though Police Detective Boney (Kim Dickens) doubts his guilt. More evidence arises to implicate Nick, until we learn that everything's an improbable charade.
Initially Gone Girl resembles A Cry in the Dark, the Aussie drama about parents wrongly accused of murdering their child. Nick's implicated not by evidence but by perception: tabloid media hounds him, and his attitude (smiling at a press conference?) paints him as a creep. Talk show hosts and "experts" debate whether Nick's a psychopath, poisoning his image. The circumstantial evidence piles up: Nick has a mistress (Emily Ratjakowski) and hides evidence, while cops discover Amy was pregnant. Realizing its flimsiness, Detective Boney defends Nick... until Amy's diary turns up.
Fincher plays these early scenes in deceptively cliched fashion. Nick's guilt isn't clear to the audience, but the conflicts and plotting seem pat. It's helped by Amy's diary, with flashbacks recasting their relationship as a marriage gone sour. Flynn's dialog sounds like a bad noir, with Nick and Amy dutifully acting cliches. Unsettling red herrings, like Amy's creepy ex (Neil Patrick Harris), flit around the story's edges. So far it's a stylish but standard thriller, like Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Then we learn the artificiality is intentional.
Gone Girl's bombshell comes only an hour into its 149 minute run time. Like Psycho, the narrative's upended by an Act Two twist that can't be discussed without ruining the movie. Things become less about Nick's guilt than Amy's dissatisfaction, and how their marriage was a tortured charade. Too bad her playacting now reaches a broader audience. By disappearing Amy becomes the ultimate femme fatale, manipulating her husband and the media through her actions. Flynn plots this masterfully, equal parts thriller and black comedy. In typical Fincher fashion, the second act detours into side characters: a pair of redneck swindlers (Boyd Holbrook and Lola Kirke), Amy's ex trying to reenact Vertigo. Later scenes play up the satire: Nick's media-savvy lawyer (Tyler Perry) coaches him through an interview, feigning contrition while casting doubts on Amy's narrative. Everything comes down to control: playing the media, gaming authorities and controlling your spouse.
Ben Affleck gives his best performance. He channels his stiffness into a controlled portrait of a confused man driven nearly insane. Tyler Perry is pitch-perfect as an amoral attorney, and Neil Patrick Harris makes a chillingly restrained psychopath. Lisa Banes and David Clennon are Amy's frazzled parents. Surprisingly for a Fincher movie, women steal the show: Carrie Coons as Nick's sister, and Kim Dickens' unflappable detective, are the only two who keep their heads amidst the lies and scheming.
Top honors go to Rosamund Pike. She has the look, style and attitude of a Grace Kelly or Kim Novak, cultivated icyness masking a bitter, frayed personality. Pike marvelously underplays the role, transitioning from loving wife to abused partner to calculating sociopath without losing composure. A shame Pike's been squandering her talents on garbage like Die Another Day and Wrath of the Titans: hopefully Gone Girl will boost her career.
Gone Girl is so intrinsically misleading it traps a reviewer into being maddeningly opaque. While unable to elaborate plot details, I can say it's an exceptional thriller that I highly recommended.
