Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2015)

Late to jump on the bandwagon, I only recently watched the highly talked about Gone Girl. Hollywood in keeping with trend, decided to cash in on the success of the best selling book and adapt it into a movie. This is somewhat of a hit and miss topic for Hollywood, there's a myriad of injudicious decisions to put novels on the silver screen in order to replicate its success, such as Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams. Conversely, there have been many felicitous film adaptations, from the blockbuster hits of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to the lower budget more independent films such as American Psycho and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Despite the film garnering so much publicity prior and upon it's release, I was very much in the dark as to what the film was about. The name Gone Girl conjured up chick flick imagery in my mind, I thought it was perhaps a film about a girl finding independence and self- empowerment – how wrong I was. Gone Girl is actually a very somber film, the performance Rosamund Pike gives as a psychotic wife resolute on framing her husband really elevates the film's acclaim. Like many I was captivated by her portrayal, I thought she struck the balance between sanity and psychopathy very well, her character for me alluded to Kevin Spacey's in The Usual Suspect in how she was the devil in disguise. Though it is important not to overlook her co-star Ben Affleck's performance who was also a sound addition to the film. Affleck like a fine wine, seems to be improving as he ages, not to say that he was a particularly bad actor, but his repertoire was hardly an illustrious one. His critical acclaim as a director and performance in Argo suggest he is starting down a more revered path (i certainly hope he doesn't go astray with his role as Batman). Affleck was an appropriate choice for the role as the character he portrays mirrors his life and relationship with media in many ways. On several occasions he's been scrutinised by the public in the past and he manages to draw upon these experiences to convey into his character. One of the things that stood out for me was the film's tone and pacing. Despite being a lengthy film, for the most part of it I was constantly intrigued, each scene builds in suspense from the last leaving the viewer wondering what was going to happen. David Fincher the director, truly is a master of his craft, and dark thrillers are his forte. It seems he has a trademark for creating scenes which leave indelible marks on the viewer (take your pick from Fight Club and Se7en) and in Gone Girl he certainly swung for the fences again with one particular twisted scene. I'm talking about the scene in which Rosamund's character slits the throat of her faithful ex- boyfriend during sex. This moment came completely out of the blue for me, it was so gruesome and graphic, the cinematography and blaring intermittent fog horn sounds made for such an original scene. This scene was near the end of the film, and I was eagerly awaiting the climax, but sadly the ending of Gone Girl really fell short and somewhat detracted from the film in what could have been a masterpiece. Alas, Gone Girl doesn't claim that status but nonetheless it was still a thoroughly enjoyable film and to me certainly another one that David Fincher can add to his port folio of accomplished films.