Terrific thriller with a great performance by Rosamund Pike

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2014)

A terrific thriller by David Fincher. Twisted and manipulative, in the best sense of the word, this two and a half hours film is based on a very famous book I have not read. Ben Affleck plays Nick as a quintessential average guy. Some years ago she met the well-off Amy (Rosamund Pike, in a stellar, award worthy performance) while living in New York and they eventually married. When his mother got sick, they return to live in his Missouri hometown, where despite their successful facade as a couple, she feels understandably bored by living in a small town. So as the movie starts, we have Nick return to their home in the day of their 5th wedding anniversary, to find Amy has disappeared and there are violent signs in the house. He calls the police, and soon enough, despite his protestations of innocence, incriminating evidence starts appearing against him. The case becomes famous nationally, the media starts to hound him, and soon we know that their marriage was far from picture perfect. But was this enough for him to kill her, in case she is really dead?
In this kind of movies, the reviewer must say as little as possible about the plot. But I have to mention the only problem I have with this film (SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD): I wince during the middle part of the movie, as a particular plot by Amy to exact revenge from her husband is revealed. Without saying anything about it, it seems wholly implausible (I know most thrillers are hardly realistic and work by suspension of disbelief; it just that during that part my disbelief wasn't suspended). The third act which closes the film, though, is great and makes you leave the theater with a smile.
There are some supposedly serious messages in the movie about the nature of marriage and relationships, the perfidy of modern media or the hypocrisy of small town society, but I think you can just enjoy this as a great thriller in the Hitchcock-De Palma tradition. Also with Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon and Emily Ratajkowski, among others in the large cast.