Loved the book; the movie, not so much...

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2014)

I loved, loved Gone Girl and have enjoyed all of Flynn's works. She has an insight into the human condition that is so accurate and disturbing which makes her writing addictive. Sadly, Flynn's screenplay- adaptation of her own novel falls flat. Although she retained the plot and most of the detail the crafty manipulation of the novel was gone.
Amy was supposed to be this fascinating multi-faceted enigma of a person that you were horrified to find yourself rooting for. In the movie she's this generation's Glenn Close or Rebecca DeMornay, another crazy woman scorned set upon murder.
Rosamund Pike was OK as "evil" Amy, if not a bit robotic, but her narration and performance as innocent Amy was all wrong. From the instant the first diary flashback started, you just knew she was full of it. Her Cool Girl rant, one of the book's highlights, is supposed to hit hard because up until that point Amy was a Cool Girl, not this evil, calculating creature.
Ben Affleck was fine as a smarmy Nick, but there was too much of him. He's not charismatic enough to carry a whole film. It should have been a story about the messed up things that Nick and Amy did to each other, a warped game of one upman-ship, not the story of "The Bad Thing That Amy Did To Nick."
Except for Nail Patrick Harris, I think the supporting cast was solid. He just didn't make Desi as fearsome as he should have been. I also expected more from Fincher's direction, who helmed the ingenious "Fight Club." This was little better than a Lifetime movie.
All in all, I was disappointed by the Gone Girl. Cliché as it is, but the book was so much better.