A chilling and highly contemporary thriller

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2014)

David Fincher is rightly regarded as a darling of modern cinema, and he continues this with his fantastic adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. The novel was a best seller for months, and a piercing look at relationships in the 21st century, and the troubles of marriage. Of course, it does this with larger than life characters and a twist filled dark mystery, but its commentary is notable.
Gone Girl focuses on the disappearance of Rosemund Pike's Amy Dunne, wife of the Prime Suspect Nick Dunne, played by Ben Affleck. The potential kidnapping/murder is interspersed with flashbacks to the formation of their happy relationship, and its slow breakdown via Amy's diary entries. To say much more about the plot would be to spoil a modern soon-to-be classic of the genre, and it's certainly a film that benefits from the viewer knowing as little as possible.
With such a necessary limit on discussion of the plot specifics, one can suffice to say that the orderly becomes disorderly, nothing is as it seems, and the progress of the film, particularly its third act, is unexpected. But along the way the film takes aim at much of societies more recent ills. The media frenzy, the 'expert opinions', the social lynching, are all shown to be superficial and contradictory. Yet, they are also acknowledged as powerful and damning. The criticism of falsehood is less aimed at the media, and more of its followers.
Indeed, falsehood is arguably the central theme of the film, and no more so does it tackle this than in relationships. Nick and Amy's relationship over the course of the two and a half hours of the film is put under our intense scrutiny, and they acknowledge the inherent falsehoods that were intentionally present. Along the way there are legitimate criticisms, such as the aspiration of the so-called 'cool girl' male desire. The criticisms strike at society today, and once again Fincher has captured an aspect of society in a time capsule. Relationships in the early 21st century are accurately captured here, albeit occasionally taken to their extremes.
In terms of the cast, this is a a film that focuses on its leads, and Ben Afflect delivers one of his best performances here, ironically placed in a character who struggles to portray genuine emotions. Rosamund Pike however steals the show as Amy, an ex-writer who is buried under an inferiority to her parent's fictionalised version of herself (in children's books called 'Amazing Amy'). The supporting cast is impressive, including a truly creepy turn from Neil Patrick Harris, and Carrie Coon as Nick's rock of a twin sister.
The film's screenplay is penned by the novel's author, and while I haven't read the novel, most accounts are that it is an excellent adaption. The script is where most of the ideas really shine, and it crafts somewhere between a thriller teetering on a constant knife edge and one of the blackest comedies in recent memory. Certainly there was a surprising amount of laughter in the cinema.
David Fincher is once again a commanding presence behind the screen, and in that sense it's similar to his previous work. It's dark, it's brooding, and it tackles contemporary society (see The Social Network, Fight Club). Fincher often appears at his most comfortable in the thriller territory, and Gone Girl is no exception. Once again the score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, making their third film collaboration, and the music's sense of false happiness is true to the film.
The film definitely has the flavour of Fincher's later, more sophisticated nuance- as in Zodiac & The Social Network- rather than the rampant kinetic excess of earlier films (e.g. Se7en, Fight Club). If one must criticise, the end segment winds down awkwardly, and by comparison the film fails to capture the dialogue or tension of some of Fincher's previous work.
It is unlikely that this is Fincher's best, though that's partly because of his consistent high quality. This is a director whose generally worst regarded film of the last decade was an Academy Award darling. Gone Girl is a masterful film that proves his quality.