Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Kim Dickens, Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Patrick Fugit, Lola Kirke, Boyd Holbrook, Missy Pyle
Directed by: David Fincher
Synopsis: With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.
Oh no. Am I going to be the only person who wasn’t blown away by Gone Girl? Don’t get me wrong I thought the majority of it was excellent but all I heard on the lead up to finally seeing it was that it was amazing, and that by any means possible avoid any spoilers. This whetted my appetite so much, perhaps too much, because when I finally saw it, I saw a film that looked fantastic and was engaging for the most part, but certainly nothing that I’ve never seen before.
Like most people have pointed out, it’s quite hard to review Gone Girl without spoiling anything. Except, it was all pretty obvious anyway wasn’t it? And certainly when the film actually gave up the ghost midway through anyway, there didn’t seem to be anything left to spoil. And then it kind of just, ended.
Now, I’m being overly harsh here, but only because I think my mind told me I was about to see a future classic of cinema, and to me, it just didn’t pan out that way. Not that there wasn’t a lot to enjoy though. Gone Girl was always a fantastic watch throughout. The performances were excellent from the whole cast, mainly Affleck, Pike and Dickens. I think the cry for Rosamund Pike to be up for an Oscar is a bit far fetched personally, she was barely in large parts of the film after all, but the scenes she was in were very well played indeed. Affleck is never likely to win an Oscar for his acting, although I do think he is vastly underrated and was on good form here.
I just, despite how impressive the film was, wanted more I think. I wanted to be twisted and turned and lead down dead end’s. Unless I’m missing something, I didn’t find there to be many twists at all. I think, besides that disappointment, the film was spot on about the way social media, and the media in general, portray people and can, more often than not, influence people and manipulate you into believing what they want you to believe.
Those who have read the book (I’m not one of them) would probably say that the characters are a bit more fleshed out than in the movie, and that would explain some of why we are just expected to understand why Amy (Pike) disappears and seems to frame her husband (Affleck) for murder (I don’t think that’s a spoiler because it happens halfway through). In the film it just seems that, because he has got lazy, and pushed her over once, that she wants him to go to prison. There has to be more to it than that, doesn’t there?
Perhaps this was a classic case of too many good reviews leaving me underwhelmed, but Gone Girl, although excellent in part, wasn’t quite the classic I was hoping to see. That said, I would find it hard to downscore it too much because it is well acted, looks fantastic and the themes are pretty interesting.
