Fincher laughs!

Rating: 8/10 (5 October 2014)

This is likely as close to a romantic comedy that we're going to get out of David Fincher. And while I found the film enormously entertaining and watchable, I was unconvinced by the two leads. (The supporting cast is superb.) I do think it needed a screenplay writer to adapt the material, but here it is: the sensational Gillian Flynn novel with all it's dark humor.
Affleck tips the balance in his favor since his general appeal helps the audience forgive him (as Tyler Perry in a departure from his usual shtick promises). That leaves Rosamund Pike as the wife with the unhappy job of bearing the weight of all the misery of the relationship. In the audience I was in, boos and curses directed at Pike, primarily from the female members of the audience didn't seem to be bothered by Affleck's portrayal of more than just a cad in the relationship. And I took issue with how winningly he plays the protagonist in a story where there really isn't one.
All the gloss of a Fincher production is here: superb cinematography, sound and art direction. But the cleverness of the plot is bound to the page, particularly in the final third of the film where everyone simply shrugs "nothing I can do about that" and leaves more than just a little of the principals' behavior without consequence. But perhaps that's the biggest joke of all; it was just poorly executed and left the audience unprepared for the finale.