Not only is Gone Girl as good as you've heard, it's better!

Rating: 9/10 (27 December 2014)

Directed by David Fincher (The Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and based on a popular novel by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl is the story of Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who discovers on the morning of his 5th wedding anniversary that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared. As police begin to investigate her disappearance, it becomes clear that their marriage is not as it seemed and soon after the media descends on his home to cover the salacious story. Seedy details about Nick's personal life emerge and his strange behavior only serves to fuel suspicion. As lies are uncovered and secrets are revealed, inevitably the police, the media and the public arrive at the same conclusion: Nick Dunne murdered his wife.
I loved just about everything about this movie; whether it's the creepy score, it's consistent suspenseful tone or it's scathing critique on marriage and the dangers of "keeping up of appearances". At first the film goes where you might expect; you'll laugh at the silly moments of their courtship, you'll fawn over their romance as the story of their relationship is retold leading up to her disappearance. But marriages are not often as they seem and neither is this film; you'll recoil as events unfurl (for the sake of not spoiling this for anyone, I won't say any more than that). Let's just say this film has a few scenes that will shock and stay with you! It was very unpredictable and had a few turns that had me gasping out loud.
There's also some obvious, but still really interesting commentary on public perception, the power of the media and it's ability to drive narrative (I found this to be a pretty sobering and relevant analogy given current events and how the US media has portrayed them). The film also cleverly plays on gender stereotypes and uses them to effectively drive home it's message. At times this felt like an unconventional horror film (I might even say it's a modern day take on Psycho), but it also has some elements of Fatal Attraction.
While I thought Ben Affleck's performance was nothing to really get excited about (he does have a few strong scenes), what really stands out here is Rosamund Pike (Barney's Version, An Education). Her performance as Amy is simply incredible! As the snobby film critics would say, this is a "Tour De Force" kind of performance. She really takes over this film and delivers work that you can't help but get immersed in. If she doesn't get an Oscar nomination, it will be a travesty because this was an unforgettable performance and I can't think of a better performance I've seen this year to date. Yes, it's THAT good.
The last 15 minutes may leave you a little puzzled (characters make decisions I can only describe as incredibly strange), lead to a few questions and will spark debate. I'm usually never a fan of "I need to spend an hour on the IMDb Message Boards so I can full understand this" kind of ending, but it does seem somewhat appropriate given the tone of this film. This is also definitely the kind of film that requires multiple viewings to grasp all of it's themes and I will certainly oblige as I found this completely engrossing.
Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, this really is a brilliant film and easily one of the best of the year. Do yourself a favor and find a way see this, you won't regret it.
Was my review not horrible? Great! Let's keep in touch, I love to talk movies ;)
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