Extremely unpredictable

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2014)

I have to start at the beginning with this one. Back when I saw Fincher directing this mystery, I totally assumed it'd be another Zodiac/The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo type of mystery- pretty straight-forward, very moody and dark, very beautifully shot. Heck, even two weeks ago I thought this. I thought it was just a simple woman-gone-missing case, and so the fact that Rosamund Pike was getting so much attention for it, for a possible Oscar nod, really blew my little mind. It wasn't until around a week ago or so that I accidentally got spoiled, and a pretty big one at that- that Pike played a villain, and that she was psychotic. Since it was unintentionally spoiled, I couldn't really get all upset but it did suck that now I knew a lot about it. Had I gone into the film completely blind, I would've been extremely shocked at every revelation.
This is a really twisted film, in a way I don't think Fincher has made since Fight Club. Whereas I expected a very serious, very atmospheric mystery, I got a thriller that took quite a lot of turns, and was also very often pretty funny and quite often super silly and just so much fun. I don't mean that as a negative, since I think it really made for quite an experience. The audience I was watching it with really took to all of it, mostly in a way I'm sure most of them didn't expect. On the downside, I'm not sure how well this will fare with rewatches, since it's very heavily plot-driven. But going by how most of Fincher's films I loved even more with time, I'm not too worried about that.
Technically, I don't think this is quite as showy as Fincher's recent outings. I was actually pretty surprised by how it wasn't driven by atmosphere and mood through cinematography in a way his last four films have. It's nicely shot, but this is the first time I wasn't marveling at just how beautiful a Fincher film looked. Maybe it was all of the plot turns that didn't have me focus so much on that? Regardless, surprising in that way, not that it matters so much. The score is wonderful, but definitely not as present as the scores for Social Network and Dragon Tattoo were. The editing is also strong, but not nearly as showy as his last two outings (if that's a good or bad thing, depends on you).
I've never been a big Ben Affleck fan when it comes to his acting (like most people) but he's never been awful either. The only time he really impressed me was in The Town, but I think this is quite easily the best I've ever seen him do. He really strikes a perfect balance with the character and the tone the film is trying to achieve, so much so that I think he's in the same league as Rosamund Pike. It's true that Pike has a hell of character to work with, something I definitely didn't predict before getting spoiled. I thought she did great, but I didn't find her nearly as amazing as many seemed to Between this and The Leftovers, Carrie Coon is really having an amazing year. And like a few people here, I felt that she might actually be the film's MVP, being able to bring such an authenticity to a character that could've felt like such a caricature and bringing loads of emotional investment in her. Kim Dickens isn't that far behind, really delivering the most of her role in a way no other supporting player besides Coon did.
I also want to highlight just how tonally weird the film is in the first half. I'm just super happy that this was not at all what I had expected weeks ago (not that that would've been a bad film). The fact that it came off as this weird, pretty funny, campy yet also serious satire and thriller is to be applauded, because I haven't seen many recent films like this.