Loses it Towards the End

Rating: 6/10 (20 February 2015)

I had high expectations for "Gone Girl" due to word-of-mouth, but sadly they weren't really met. This movie has some core problems and is a mixed bag. On the one hand the direction is good, and the acting fairly good, but on the other, the story is a mess and the dialog and chemistry often unsupportable. The movie runs a long feeling 2 hr 25 min and the preponderance of media embedded in the story feels like a nuisance and is annoying. Director David Fincher, who has done both worse and better work seems to have a good idea of what he wants from his camera - editing and picture- work are very good as is the music. Though Affleck and Pike are individually pretty good, their early scenes together do not ring genuine often thanks to far- fetched or cliché-ridden dialog, and late in the movie the story has degenerated so badly that the dialog has little meaning in the final scenes. Indeed the the last 25 min has failed the story. The concept was there, but it got swept away. The resolution was unbelievable and awful. 6/10 for the first 4/5 of the movie despite sometimes poor dialog, but with good points for moody music. Mixed.