In a year mostly deprived of compelling dramas, good action
pictures, and funny comedies, Gone Girl,
directed by David Fincher, was a breath of absolutely fresh air. The main
thought I had after walking out of the theater is that still, even in this day
and age, a great story, great characters, and great directing can take a movie
so far. And boy, does this film go to some far off places. It is the first film
for David Fincher since 2011’s The Girl
With The Dragon Tattoo, still one of my favorite movies of all time. As
Fincher has made more and more films, his direction has become more and more
icy and detached. As bad as that sounds, it truly is not. It has worked
perfectly in his last few films, as he is able to examine complex relationships
where the characters interact with their own personalities, not personalities
arbitrarily changed or created by the director. This works to his full
advantage in a film such as this, one that is built on examining various
complex relationships born out of complex characters. Fincher gives the cast
their arena for the personalities to battle in, and he, along with the
audience, sits backs and is thrilled by the fireworks. Ben Affleck plays Nick
Dunne, who comes home one day to find his wife, Amy, missing. The question of
whether he killed her or not is brought to the forefront of the story. Affleck,
who I suppose you could say is on a bit of a hot streak, does a good job here.
This is more of a personal preference thing but I don’t really think he is a versatile
actor. Good, of course, but there aren’t many of his performances that are
discernible from others. This is probably his best role as he examines a lot of
different emotions at once and is able to balance them in a surprisingly
nuanced way throughout the movie, whose plot is slowly, yet constantly
twisting. However, the absolute star of the show is Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne.
Mark my words; this is a star making performance. If she doesn’t at least get
nominated for Best Actress at this year’s Oscars, I will riot or start
disregarding the Oscars more than I already do. It’s hard to say much about her
performance without venturing into spoiler territory but she absolutely knocks
it out of the park. She was an electrifying presence onscreen and the emotions
of the characters around her were frighteningly palpable. You paid attention
when “Amazing Amy” was talking. Pike joins an ever-growing list of amazing
performances by Fincher’s actresses, alongside Rooney Mara for her impeccable
performance as Lisbeth Salander in The
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It is fantastic to see strong women
personalities in the movies today. I put Pike’s performance up alongside ones
such as the aforementioned Mara, Leila Hatami from A Separation, and Jessica Chastain from Zero Dark Thirty. Each of these women are perfectly portrayed and
show strength, conviction, and absolute intelligence in the face of danger in a
way that has not been seen in film for a long time. I’m so very excited to see
more of these performances in the future. The film’s look and feel is classic
Fincher and you can see shades of Dragon Tattoo here as well, considering
Fincher is working with the Oscar nominated cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth once
more. The darkness of the film’s lighting gives it a very
chilling film-noirish feel to compliment its dark story and femme fatale. There
is darkness in the relationships of couples today, possibly even more so than
there ever has been. That darkness is concealed initially from the outset, but
at the right time or given a certain circumstance, those clean and happy faces
will start to erode and expose what truly lies beneath. That theme is the one
most explored in this film. Given his history, Fincher was the perfect choice
for this film and he handles these themes with the utmost precision and care.
My only gripe about this film is that it is a bit too long. Clocking in around
two and a half hours, there are certain parts that drag, if only for a little
bit. In spite of this fact, the story is paced perfectly enough that as soon as
we may be getting bored of a scenario, a new plot twist or deviation comes
crashing through to grab us by the nose again and string us along. This film is one of the very best all around
movies of the year, as well as the best mystery thriller so far. I cannot
recommend it enough and hope to see it win big at the Oscars early next year.
My rating for it, according to the IMDb scale, is a 9 out of 10.
