A Twisty, Turny Meditation on Expectations

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2014)

David Fincher gives us another beautiful, stylized look at some of the darkest sides of humanity. Plenty of other reviewers have covered the plot, the twists, and the characterization (with excellent acting by Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, and Carrie Coon), so I wanted to focus on the feel and the theme.
Fincher brings his cinematic eye to present scenes that are downright dreamy and otherworldly, with a soundtrack by Trent Rezor and Atticus Ross that subtly reinforces the message that something is not-quite-right with what we are seeing. Then, he quickly snaps back to a dreary reality, with a man out of his element, dealing with pressures and situations he cannot comprehend. Even the opening title sequence, with cuts far too quick, are unsettling, setting the viewers up to expect plot twists to be thrown at us fast and unexpectedly. Visually and from a sonic perspective, the movie is glorious to behold.
The plot, of course, is a clever twist on the husband-kills-wife story that we've seen plenty of, but upon close scrutiny, it doesn't hold to examination. No one saw a big-screen TV being loaded into a shed? The FBI didn't deeply investigate all the inconsistencies? There's really no way out for Affleck's dopey, played husband?
Upon reflection, it's not meant to be examined closely. Gillian Flynn is presenting a parable of expectations, communication, and media manipulation. Largely, we see what we want to see, and we glorify what we are told to glorify. The beautiful, pregnant wife is an untouchable icon. The perfect marriage is a young couple in NYC, with plenty of clandestine sex in public spaces, this is the ideal aspiration. Men have issues with control and fidelity, and while they can be forgiven, this should not be forgotten. These "truths" are not really truths at all, but they are what we buy into as a society because we want to. When facts get in the way, we willingly brush them aside to embrace the easy mythology, because the lie is more appealing than the truth, and the truth hurts if we do not wish to embrace it.
At the end of the film, wronged husband Nick Dunne asks how they got to this point. "All we did was resent each other, try to control each other. We caused each other pain." The response? "That's what marriage is." More like life, but then it doesn't have to be, unless we let ourselves be seduced by the myth instead of embracing the reality and communicating openly about it.