The Modernist master

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2016)

Version I saw: Showcase cinema screening
Actors: 8/10
Plot/script: 7/10
Photography/visual style: 7/10
Music/score: 7/10
Overall: 8/10
David Fincher is the most modern of directors, dealing with modern issues in a modern way, drawing from cinema's history but not bound by it.
He also has a habit of drawing career-defining performances from actors. Both of these are much in evidence in Gone Girl. I was aware of Rosamund Pike as a very good British actress before, but this portrayal takes her to the next level.
This is not to say that I like her character Amy. Almost all the characters in the film are pretty repugnant: much of Fincher's work appears to take the premise that there is darkness just under the skin of every human being who ever lived.
The tone of the film is unnerving, and this is due in no small part to the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, of Nine Inch Nails fame.
The plot develops in some pretty lurid directions, to the extent that I wonder whether it harms or enhances the themes explored, mainly of the crass cynicism of modern fame. The main plot twist is a bit of a stretch too, but I went with it, and I am glad I did, because the end it leads to is quite outstanding.