I don't buy this story

Rating: 1/10 (16 November 2014)

If a movie doesn't have a story, it's not a good movie. I thought Fincher tried to shove the movie's ending down my throat. I have not read the book so I can't tell if this is Fincher butchering it or not having much to work with. The movie started out great, very promising. However, after that Amy phone call from the gas station to Desi, the movie deflated quickly. From there to the end the story is a bunch of hooey.
*How does Desi, an apparently successful LOCAL person, harbor a missing person appearing on a cover story nationwide and subject to a manhunt? Is just his college fling with Amy that would make me believe that he would take that crazy amount of risk? He appears also too naive or stupid for someone to be taking that risk, which is in stark contrast with his successful image and obsessive/paranoid character (security cameras everywhere). I have never seen a paranoid/rich person who is also that gullible. That character is as fake as a three dollar bill. And Neil Patrick Harris is a bad choice for that character as he strikes me as neither stupid/gullible nor psycho/paranoid.
*Amy's return home storyline has way too many holes to pass as remotely credible. Was she able to access Desi's state of the art security system so as to delete all incriminating evidence? Her staging of the rape was enough to make police buy her story? Was she an advanced computer programmer to erase Desi's hard drives from those security camera downloads? Or should we take that for granted? It's just not believable.
*Pike's performance is absolutely outstanding, probably the only thing of the entire movie worth watching.