screenplay by Gillian Flynn (based on her novel)
It's hard to discuss David Fincher's latest film Gone Girl, in great detail without wading into spoiler territory, because so much of the film revolves around twists in the plot, but to my mind it is a rather extraordinary film, and Fincher's most audacious since his breakout film Se7en.
Spouses Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and Amy Elliot (Rosamund Pike), have been married for five years, and the last few have not been pleasant. Things take a turn for the strange when Nick, who manages a bar, comes home to find his wife having completely disappeared with signs of a struggle. Over the days that follow, Nick's life turns into a living hell as suspicion rises that he killed Amy with the Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) hot on his tail. As Dunne recruits infamous defense attorney Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry), time is not on his side.
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
There's something gratifying about seeing a mainstream movie, especially one as well crafted as this one, defy convention; while the film would most properly be classified as a "thriller" it really is so much more than that, and it features some truly amazing writing and acting. it is an incredibly engaging film, with an ending that really threw me for a loop.
Affleck sticks to his usual low-key, aw shucks acting, which is, fortunately, consistent with Nick's character, but it's Pike who shines as Amy, for reasons I cannot really discuss lest I spoil plot points. Tyler Perry was a hoot as Nick's oily defense attorney, and there were a lot of other sterling performances all around from Dickens as Detective Boney and Carrie Coon as Nick's twin sister Margo.
What I loved about the storytelling was how often it turned things on their head, bringing on story tropes and then taking abrupt left turns. Still, I wasn't too fond of the final twist as to my mind it kind of transformed the film into something else, but again, it's not something I can discuss. For all its flaws, this is a film that needs to be experienced (even if, at this point, one will have to wait for it on home video).
David Fincher has turned in some pretty extraordinary work over the years, but this is, to me anyway one of the movies for which he will truly be remembered.
8.7/10
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