A Hitchcockian thriller of postmillennial proportions

Rating: 9/10 (3 October 2014)

"Gone Girl" has Ben Affleck as a man who becomes the central suspect in his beautiful Ivy League wife's ghastly disappearance from their upscale Missouri home. What happened to Amy Dunne? If you've read Gillian Flynn's book or have seen the film, then you already know the story, but I'll spare the details just for the sake of spoilers.
David Fincher has a penchant for making films that are stylistically rich, masterful in many ways, though not always exactly thematically profound. "Gone Girl" falls somewhere in-between, heavy on visual slickness with some profoundly interesting ruminations on marriage, celebrity, social status, and the all-seeing spotlight of 21st century media bleeding into our lives at the most inconvenient and horrific of moments. These are obviously transferred from Flynn's novel, but Fincher's treatment of the material is apt and his vision is stunning.
The sinister quiet of suburbia echoes throughout the film's open spaces, and an unusually haunting aesthetic is carried with it. The million dollar house tainted only by the smallest speck of blood; a wife who may or may not be in a danger; curbs alight with news vans and paparazzi. The universal hysteria and obsession we have with murder and crime is fully realized here, and the nightmarish situation is brought to life in a way I've never seen on film before. Flashy modernist photography accentuates thematic elements while juxtaposing with the film's more classic narrative roots, and to great effect.
Needless to say, the performances here are incredible. Even as someone who is not a Ben Affleck fan, I found his performance to be truly admirable, walking the line between innocent small- town guy to deserved hex object. It wasn't until halfway through the film that I realized just how nuanced Rosamund Pike's performance was— she is so good that I was fooled by her banality, and the role becomes almost metonymic as the film unravels her throughout its narrative. Carrie Coon is wonderful as Affleck's spunky and supportive sister, and Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris somehow work here despite my skepticism of their casting.
The film eventually unveils its absurdist thriller roots about midway through, and unfolds in a way that is Hitchcockian in both style and substance, with shades of "Vertigo" bleeding into the frames. The film's conclusion is of similar Hitchcockian proportions— unbelievable and yet wholly tangible. No matter how absurd it may seem to be, we do not question it because we really aren't allowed to.
Overall, "Gone Girl" is a solid thriller through and through, and is one of the best movie-going experiences I've had in recent memory. Like all the greats, its narrative has all the appropriate twists and turns and is consistently engaging, but rather than simply doing that and taking the route of imitation lone, it's very aware of and engages with its sociohistorical locus. 9/10.