David Fincher's weakest film to date

Rating: 5/10 (9 November 2014)

So, I went to see Gone Girl in theaters a couple of weeks ago. In Mexico. In Puebla to be exact. First time seeing a movie in a Mexican theater for me. And wouldn't you know it, Spanish subtitles are not as distracting as I feared they would be. And I've been lazily sitting on my notes since then. But enough of that nonsense, let's get to the review, shall we?
If you're a casual reader, chances are that you've heard about or have possibly even read Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. You know which book I am talking about, it's the novel that that one roommate of yours can't stop raving about. Skeptically you read it yourself, and wouldn't you know it, it's quite the page turner. And then you hear that it's being adapted into a film by none other than David Fincher.
Now about David Fincher. He's a strong contender as my favorite contemporary American director. With an oeuvre that includes Zeitgeist-capturing milestones like Fight Club and The Social Network, and modern crime classics like Seven and Zodiac, you cannot help but get excited for any new film by him. So then what do you get when you pair an exemplary director with the hottest book adaptation of recent years?
Unfortunately the answer is way less than what you would have hoped for. And the reason for that is very much related to the source material. Gone Girl's plot revolves around the disappearance of Amy Dunne, and how her husband Nick tries to uncover what happened to her. I really don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read the book or seen the movie because, SURPRISE, there's some twists along the line. But together with the twist comes all the other baggage from the novel, everything crammed in and rushed through to such a degree that entire subplots become convoluted and incomprehensive. Less would really have been more in this case.
I don't have a problem with the story per se, as an avid reader of the book I am simply astonished how safe the movie plays it in terms of plotting and doggedly retracing the novel's footsteps one by one. There's next to no changes to the story, and that turns out to be a problem because, face it, the mystery, its explanation and solution are beyond ridiculous. When you're reading the book that's not really a glaring problem, simply because the characterization worked so much better on paper that you forgot how heavily everything relied on far fetched assumptions, crazy coincidences and convenient story short cuts.
Gone Girl, the book, works because its characters are three dimensional and believable. Gone Girl, the movie, eventually fails because its characters are too simplistic to function in that complex of a plot. I don't want to blame it on the actors, as they try their best to make it work. Being let down by the material is really not their fault. Even main actor Ben Affleck, someone who is not widely known for great acting, is well cast as Nick Dunne, his emotionless stare fairly effective to keep us guessing whether he is somehow involved in his wife's disappearance. Rosamund Pike as Amy, his wife, is only allowed to play extremes. She does it clearly delighting in the task, but that doesn't help to give Amy any shred of realism.
The other key players are a little hit and miss. Tyler Perry is actually doing a really good job as Nick's defense attorney, something you wouldn't have suspected from the star and creator of the Madea movies. Neil Patrick Harris, on the other hand, as one of Amy's exes is stiff and theatrical in all the wrong ways, a bad miscast here.
But these are petty little complaints as the film clips by really fast, given its runtime of two and a half hours. So yes, it is entertaining. But it's by no means a remarkable film. In fact, I think this is David Fincher's worst film to date. Everything that happens can be taken at face value, there's nothing deeper going on other than just racing through the plot of the movie. Even Fincher's failures, films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or The Game had something going on in terms of visual inventiveness or pure atmosphere that would allow an interesting rewatch. Not here. Gone Girl is pedestrian in its execution and that's its biggest offense. No technical marvel, no standout acting, just checkmarking and shoehorning in all the plot points of the novel. See it once and you've seen it all, there's nothing that's tickling the mind afterwards. There are some attempts at slight satire of the media's witch hunt of Ben Affleck's character, but every time something of substance and interest seems to be forming it gets crushed by the plot. Gone Girl is really just hollow popcorn fare without much soul.