A Dark, Stimulating Thriller. ♦ 74%

Rating: 7/10 (4 November 2014)

The book is always better than the movie. So, lets just go ahead of that.
You will be discussing the movie for several hours after. You will regret you didn't read the book first and all your friends have. You will just wish not to have a person like one of those few main characters (of the movie) in your life. But, most essentially, you will hope YOU don't become like one of those. That is how dark and stimulating David Fincher's latest thriller Gone Girl is.
It primarily shows how far we, as human beings have reached. Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), a jobless writer finds one morning that his over-indulgent wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) is missing. The motor starts making noise just after that, as skeletons start falling from the cupboard, from the heater, from inside the bed, from the warehouse, from a jar in the kitchen, from the tiny nail cavity. Soon we learn what marriage can do to people, if not handled properly. It reminded me of several fictional stories which say that the tiniest matters the most. Imagine the wife Amy as an evolved version of YOURSELF. With few doses of insanity, discipline, and sociopathy.
It throws light at the ranges of sanity and insanity in the world, all at the same time. You may not feel for the characters much after what they do to themselves, but it does become sumptuous food for thought for us. Would you be able to carry out any similar things like those shown in the film? Perhaps not. Gillian Flynn has written a contemporary story about marriage, delusion, and sweet (or bitter) revenge.
Fincher has added the right ingredients in the adaptation, and I am truly impressed with Trent Reznor's score. At the same time, he has missed certain points; the result being a whole different recipe. Gone Girl falls in black comedy genre, which disappoints me. Yeah, add humor, lots of it, but when its proportion surpasses that of the main theme, things go wrong. The book is equally comic if not more, but it never mixed, the hard and soft.
I am in awe with Ben Affleck. His air is fabulous and now I cannot think of any other actor for the role. From that smile in the trailers to his nuanced actions - they all so blend nicely with the story, oh, I cannot stop praising him and helping him chafe the highly earned prejudice off. Rosamund Pike is the showstopper. She is perfect as Amazing Amy. Her eyes spoke all that Flynn might have wanted to convey through the silver. Perry and Harris both are good. Carrie Coon is better.
The score makes you want more, but I am upset they didn't use any track except BOC's "The Reaper"; the screenplay may not be the best but it suited. Fincher directs his cast brilliantly. The art department has to be lauded for creating a gleam ambiance that fits with the plot. Overall, the film has been handled averagely well with respect to the book.
BOTTOM LINE: May not be THE film of the year, but definitely the thriller of the year. A person MUST watch the film and indulge in the character's insanity, for it will be a difficult affair to experience it in real life. Go ahead and experience no-frilled insanity.
Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO
TIP: If possible, watch it anywhere but India, for the censorship ruins the film.