Another Tense, Finely Crafted Effort from Fincher

Rating: 9/10 (19 April 2015)

"Gone Girl" is yet another gripping, tense, carefully crafted film from the one and only David Fincher. He's one of my favorite directors and like most of our modern-day Greats, you know when you're watching one of his movies. You know it's a Fincher movie when you get a dense, slow-burning, meticulous effort that stuns you with it's growing sense of dread. You get the same thing with "Gone Girl", which is the adaptation of Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel (Flynn also wrote the screenplay) about the media circus Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) goes through once his enigmatic wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), disappears and he becomes more and more of a suspect.
Now, let's get to the story. I just need to say that some of these one-star reviews really miss the point. I don't want to spoil this thing too much for you. I didn't read the book before I saw the film and it's better to remain surprised. All I will say is that Amy is certainly not as innocent as she appears to be. And all of the so-called "plot holes" are intentional. Even a few of the characters in the film point out that "things don't add up." That's the point! That this woman's story is full of holes YET the media and the police are all willing to overlook that because this whole fiasco has become an incredible story. It harks back to the Scott and Lacey Peterson case; one of those national-news dramas that everyone's talking about and everyone has an opinion on. The media and the police have invested too much into this whole thing for them to not get the story they want. So, they overlook the holes, highlighted in a very telling scene near the end that also shows just how differently this all could've progressed if Amy was a man (something that Pike herself interestingly pointed out in an interview).
Basically, the Internet is full of people who love to complain and trash what's popular. A lot of it is just unimaginative nitpicking. So, don't let the negative reviews disparage you. Fincher is still at the top of his game. It might not be on a "Seven" or "Fight Club" level of resonance. But, I found it incredibly entertaining, from beginning to end. Flynn stays true to her novel, retaining a cynical and disturbingly realistic ending that matches perfectly with Fincher's nihilistic outlook as a filmmaker.
The performances are uniformly excellent. Affleck has never been the greatest of actors. Yet, he seems tailor-made for the role of Nick. Effectively callow, distant, and fumbling, you don't know exactly what to think of him until the halfway mark. Carrie Coon is a lively, relatable presence as Nick's frustrated yet loyal twin sister, Margo, and provides some comic relief. As does Tyler Perry, who surprises by breaking away from his usual Madea shtick to deliver a straight-on, confident, coolly composed portrayal of a slick lawyer, Tanner Bolt, who Nick enlists for help. Neil Patrick Harris is mostly believable as Amy's creepy, obsessive ex-boyfriend, Desi Collings, but you can sometimes feel his comic archness slipping through a bit too much. And Kim Dickens rounds out the supporting cast as Detective Boney, who alternates between doubting Nick and wanting to trust him.
But, make no mistake: this is Rosamund Pike's film. Though, at first, she seems to have a bit less screen time, you eventually realize how she's always controlling this entire show, whether she's on-camera or not. After years of noticeable supporting parts, Amy Dunne was Pike's leading-lady coming-out party, nabbing her a much-deserved Best Actress Oscar nod. She is downright chilling in this role. Not only does she nail the stone-cold calculation and focus of Amy but she understands the range that is required to play this role. Amy is so manipulative and such a role-player that Pike is called on to be charmingly sophisticated, laidback, and vulnerable, as well. And, looking back, we realize the insincerity of such moments. And then there are times where she's flat-out dangerous and unsettling, revealing the depths of her psychopathy. Pike's voiceovers, narrated through her so-called diary, will also get in your head and stay there. An extended montage where she reveals her entire plan, set to the haunting score of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (working with Fincher for the third time), stopped me in my tracks and is bound to become a classic.
Pike alone makes this film worth a watch. She's like a female Hannibal Lector or a new-millennium version of Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction"; a very memorable movie psychopath. But, in my eyes, this is also a very solid, gripping film with some interesting things to say about our media-driven, image-obsessed culture.