Fincher, Flynn, Affleck, and Pike achieve Mediocrity

Rating: 6/10 (22 October 2014)

Is David Fincher a "great" film director? Certainly, he has created much more excellent cinema than bad. THE SOCIAL NETWORK, FIGHT CLUB, and GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, in my opinion, achieving excellence; BENJAMIN BUTTON being a tiresome, pretentious bore. I would say that GONE GIRL lands somewhere in between. And ultimate blame for its disappointing mediocrity can be cast in multiple directions.
Fincher's GONE GIRL falls far short of achieving the deliciously devious tension of the novel. The book's seductive structure, dual point of view, and Gillian Flynn's fearless spelunking into the darkest predispositions of her characters make for huge challenges to the already daunting task of adapting a novel for the screen. And, more often than not, the novelist is not the best man for the job. Hands down, the all time champ was William Goldman. John Irving swung and whiffed more than a few times before finally hitting a grand slam with CIDER HOUSE RULES. Ms. Flynn was able to cleverly condense her thick, unhurried tome into a taut 140 pages. I'll give her that.
Alas, however, a more skilled, experienced screenwriter might have delivered more bang for the page. Aaron Sorkin, for instance, was able to take much less compelling source material and make THE SOCIAL NETWORK into a far more compelling film-viewing experience. So, it seems that director Fincher was somewhat handcuffed, short changed from the get-go. And, if it ain't on the page... (I know. Alert the Cliché Police!) Nuff said on that theme.
But please tell me this: how was Fincher unable to evoke a convincing — or even interesting — performance from Ben Affleck? Flynn's Nick Dunne is a Mama's boy, who constantly defaults to charm-offense mode to overcome his innate un-likability. Affleck sulks through this film in one robotic, unappealing gear. Only in his interactions with Carrie Coon, in an excellent portrayal of twin sister Margo, does Affleck pump any real blood into his Nick.
Ultimately, the film belongs to the character of Amy — a role that should be as memorable as Glenn Close's whacked-out Alex Forest in FATAL ATTRACTION or Sharon Stone's diabolical Catherine Tramel in BASIC INSTINCT. The novel's Amy is a narcissistic psychopath, who picks away page-by-page at the reader's belief in the goodness of mankind. Rosamund Pike's Amy mumbles sleepily through the first half of the film. Thus, we are not manipulated, as we should be, into loving her. So, when she finally reveals her true nature, it fails to evoke the necessary gasp on which the entire story turns.
Also, Pike's performance doesn't adequately reveal how Amy's parents turned their daughter into a resentful monster by exploiting her childhood in their wildly popular Amazing Amy book series, only to add insult to injury by taking back the endowment she feels was minimum compensation at best for their plagiarizing her life.
Even Trent Reznor's musical contributions seemed paint-by-numbers. These repetitious, droney, dissonant crescendos that end abruptly at every other scene change only amount to vain, noisy attempts to create tension that wasn't already on the screen. One would think that Reznor might offer composition with more nuance and less noise — as he did so superbly with his SOCIAL NETWORK score.
Rosamund Pike has a visage for the ages. Ben Affleck is a man of varied and substantial talents. David Fincher is one of contemporary cinema's most capable directors. Gillian Flynn is a splendid storyteller with an original voice. GONE GIRL should have been one of the most stunning shockers of recent years. Just goes to show, even with a top-notch team, somehow the sum of the parts can total less than the parts themselves.