Alongside Birdman, Gone Girl blows the standards for 2014 out of the water.

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2015)

I knew in the hands of a master like Fincher this couldn't have possibly failed. The man has always had a knack for choosing great books to turn into films (Fight Club), as well as setting the environment for very dark stories.
Gone Girl has various high points: the acting is of a very high grade (Pike is brilliant at playing the "psycho bitch", Perry has a lot of charisma to his character, I enjoyed Affleck as Nick, and even Neil's short-lived performance is still impressive), the score is chilling in this harrowing yet amazing way and fits the dark aura of the story like a glove, the script is clever and ceases to disappoint, and just the overall story (Yes, I think the ending is great and makes sense) in general is better than nearly every film out there this decade. The concept may not exactly be innovative or even original, but it's the manner in how it unfolds in which I believe it sets itself apart from the rest, making it all seem brand new even though you might have seen something similar before.
What was most particularly clever about the movie (turn back here if you haven't watched the movie yet because I am about to enter into spoiler territory), were certain pieces of dialogue (the anniversary riddles, and the scene near the ending where Nick realizes he is back where he started, and it's basically all the same, "That's marriage") and how Flynn was able to throw the audience off on the truth by placing Nick into situations in which he would lose his temper in (which we find out was orchestrated by Amy), as well as the one frame of reference to Nick and Amy's early relationship being Amy, forcing the audience to essentially trust her, just to find out we were duped and that she is so mentally off that she wrote a fake diary for years. Of course it is far-fetched, but in this instance it's absolutely fine, it's completely brilliant to be far fetched in that situation because the lack of plausibility just adds more shock. And the ending, you people need to understand that Amy was too smart for Nick that she put him into a corner. By being pregnant, and faking the rape, she was hailed as an angel by everybody in society, and if Nick left her his life would be ruined unless he moved out of the country, which we know that he can't afford to do anymore. Think, people, think, or watch an other movie because Fincher doesn't cater to the imbecile. Another couple of points, the time between her killing Desi and returning home is a couple of hours, so obviously she tampered with the tapes enough before she came back (the ride is only 2 hours) so she would look like the victim. Why else would she tell them to "please find the tapes" if she didn't carefully edit and plan out everything before returning home? No plot hole, people just need to learn how to think. Also, I found that although the movie is highly centered around Nick and Amy and is very story driven, I found it to say a lot about society. It's very depressing, but truthful also that our people today are so ignorant to believe that the controlling and abusive one can only be the male. Setting aside Amy's intelligence, a lot of her plan and actions were just exploiting societal flaws. I also observed its subtle message that essentially said society is so shallow that it more of the time tries to exploit the current situation for themselves rather than empathize or sympathize with it. It sounds like over-analysis, but just pay attention to the little aspects of the movie, such as: 1. Ellen Abbott excessively talking about the story to garner more views while she just jumped on the bandwagon which held the popular opinion, 2. Much more subtle, but as Nick passes by The Bar, he sees that it is now incredibly crowded, and a lot of people are talking selfies and other pictures with it. They thought "Hey!, living near the bar where that wife-killer works makes me so lucky and special!" and felt the need to take advantage. I'm highly sure Gillian Flynn put this all in there to just paint the background of society as the drama unravels, it seems really intentional to me.
So in conclusion, Gone Girl is a masterpiece, only rivaled by and a bit below Birdman, but otherwise is untouchable. Don't listen to the people trying to bash it in and create flaws that aren't even there... just because it's popular doesn't make it mediocre (talking to you, hipsters).
Twisted, gruesome, creative, different, and enthralling.
9/10
Oh, and before I end this review, I'd just like to say I very highly recommend the book. It stomps the film into oblivion and just might help you find that closure you need if the movie just didn't meet your fix.