Gone Girl

Rating: 9/10 (13 October 2014)

I was eagerly awaiting the release of Gone Girl, with high hopes and expectations based on the reviews that I had read, plus also because of David Fincher's very impressive body of work. All in all, I would have to say that I liked the film very much, but I did not love it. I think one thing that may have impacted my decision a little bit, was through no fault of the film whatsoever, but of online movie critics. I was reading different reviews of the film online (some of professional critics and some not) and I just found that in the reviews that I read, too much information was leaked out and spoiled about the movie, so that when I went to watch it, there were certainly plenty of surprises, but all in all I mostly knew where the film was going and I now wish I had entered the theatre knowing nothing about the film and that probably that might have made a bigger impact on me then. The style and satire of the film was also something I had to get used to. The constant media coverage surrounding the characters and the events in this film and the police who were profiling to the point of actually being obnoxious, to me at first was kind of aggravating. As the film went on however, I noticed that this was some tongue in cheek and almost satirical humour from the point of view of the writer and director. Just the fact that today's media and news outlets control so much of our thoughts and perceptions about certain events and news stories and there is always some sort of media bias, or slant to each situation. Here in Canada, we have the network broadcaster, CBC, and I can only truthfully watch some of their news programs because I find that so much of it is slanted and biased with a more liberal, or left wing style approach and while that may be fine for some, I find their politically correct and skewered way of doing the news often annoying, not truthful and not to my way of thinking, or my attitude towards world events, or politics. I only watch the station sparingly. It does seem you get that kind of bias from whatever news, or station you watch and just some of the bias is more obvious than others. So, I appreciated the film's jab and poking fun nature at this subject as it has long been a beef with me as well. I had to get used to the obnoxious cops and newscasters in the film, but when I did I appreciated the satire all the more. A few other complaints about the film revolve around certain events and sometimes it almost did seem very implausible and unrealistic. After you have seen the film (no, I am not giving anything away), you look at the film and start to wonder why certain things went to such measures of the extreme to pull off other things and it just baffles the mind. Should one be impressed by this type of storytelling? Repulsed? What was the message, or theme that they wanted to get across to us the viewers? The film was interesting on a level where we break down the characters and try to analyze them and figure out why they are doing what they are doing, but in the end there was fascination on my part, some disbelief and just plain some stuff that I did not get. The film's length did not bother me, but I did feel that certain scenes especially towards the end of the film could have been trimmed down a bit and overall were just not necessary to the film, or to the plot. There were a few plot holes in the film that I had a little problems with, but now on to what I did like about the film. As a whole, Gone Girl, was in very capable hands and the filmmakers did mostly succeed in doing a very good film. The acting from Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and the entire cast was all excellent and almost certain to cause some acting nominations at next year's Oscars. The film was slick and stylish with it's lighting and creepy, but atmospheric music. The film did keep and hold on to my interest even though it was a longer film and it awakened a whole bunch of emotions from me while watching the film. I always think that if you watch a film and it makes you feel at least something, then the filmmakers have succeeded on their end of the spectrum. While the film is far from perfect, it is still a very powerful and chilling film that is very well done and worth watching, I just would not recommend reading too many if any reviews on the film before you actually decide to go and see it. I will be curious to know what The Academy Awards will make of a film like this. It certainly is a warped and very different film, but could that lead to Oscar gold? I look forward to when the nominations come out to see for sure. As for Gone Girl, it was very close but not enough to be a masterpiece, or a perfect film, but it still is very good and worth seeing at least once.