“Gone Girl” Directed by David Fincher

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Director:

David Fincher (“Seven”, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “The Social Network”)

Main Cast:

Ben Affleck (“Dazed and Confused”, “Chasing Amy”, “Goodwill Hunting”)

Rosamund Pike (“Price and Prejudice”, “An Education”)

Kim Dickens (“Committed”, “Thank You for Smoking”,  “The Blind Side”)

Carrie Coon (This is her first feature)

Missi Pyle (“As Good as It Gets”, “Galaxy Quest”, “Big Fish”)

Neil Patrick Harris (The Harold & Kumar movies)

Tyler Perry (“Star Trek”)

Running Time:   149 Minutes

_____________________________________________________________________

The first line from the first (November 6, 2012) review I did for the Penn Square Post reads:

Of the many things “Argo” achieves, it lets us know the For Your Consideration season has begun.

As much as I hate to plagiarize anyone or repeat myself, just replace “Argo” with “Gone Girl” and that’s the intro to this review.¹  I’m not trying to draw parallels here, but “Argo” went on to win Oscars® for Adapted Screenplay, Editing, and Best Picture.

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck, right) is a married man who, after visiting his sister ─ and, as his twin, his lifelong confidante and voice of reason ─ at the bar they own together, comes home to find evidence a crime has been committed and his beautiful and well-educated wife Amy (the perfectly cast Rosamund Pike) is gone.  The couple moved to Nick’s hometown in suburban St. Louis from New York City after they both lost their Manhattan jobs in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis.  What starts out as an abduction case turns to a possible murder with all fingers pointing squarely at Nick.  Leading the finger-pointing is judgmental shrew and Nancy Grace clone, tabloid TV host Ellen Abbott (Missi Pyle, below with Tyler Perry).

Through her reporting, Abbott guides the viewer through the film/case as its quasi-narrator and simultaneous voice of public opinion and its chief influence.  One theme of the movie is the public’s need to stick its nose into the personal lives of other people, how quick we can be to condemn, and how easily we can be manipulated by the media.

Based on the reaction of Nick’s sister Margo (an outstanding Carrie Coon) upon hearing of Amy’s disappearance, we learn Amy, while pretty and smart, is not a pleasant or well-liked person.  Foul play at someone else’s hands is not out of the realm of possibility.  Except for when I put acting performances in context, that’s as much of the plot as I’m giving away.  One thing I will say is this movie will have guys keeping one eye on their wives, girlfriends, and prospects the same way they did after “Fatal Attraction” came out.

In the interview Tom did with me when I started writing for the Penn Square Post, I mentioned my aversion to murder mysteries which, again, is how this movie starts.  Once the movie got going, however, it got my full attention and I gave up on trying to figure out the ending because the story takes unpredictable and fascinating turns.

The stars of “Gone Girl” are the writing (Gillian Flynn adapting her own novel) and Pike (left), although everything about the movie is well done.  Pike’s role has to be a dream for an actor because it’s diverse and intense like the movie itself, which evolves from murder mystery to thriller to horror story.

David Fincher with Rosamund Pike

Having been a fan of David Fincher’s work as a music video director (including Madonna’s highly stylized “Vogue” and “Express Yourself” videos), I’ve waited for him to put out a really great film.  He’s put out some good movies but, if “Gone Girl” is not that great one, I’m not sure what is.  What’s fascinating about “Gone Girl” as a Fincher film is that his touch is usually about dazzling visuals (the time-lapse construction of the Transamerica Building in “Zodiac” and all of “Benjamin Button”).  If this film has similarly impressive visuals, I’ll have to look for them the next time I see it because, again, the story and acting are so strong I couldn’t focus on anything else.  One technical I did notice was the understated yet effective music score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who teamed to win an Original Score Oscar for Fincher’s 2010 “The Social Network”.

All the acting performances are solid, including that of Saturday Night Live castaway Casey Wilson as the neighbor who nobody knew was a friend of Amy’s until after the disappearance.²   Coon owns every scene she’s in as she convincingly ranges from levelheaded to frantic.  Kim Dickens (left) is emotionally involved and involving as local police detective Rhonda Boney, who is assigned to the case.  Patrick Fugit (the kid from Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous”) gives a good performance as the officer partnered with Boney in a role with a stronger presence than his minimal dialogue lets on.  Tyler Perry, whose movies and TV shows are targeted at a demographic I am not part of, is surprising as the super (and super expensive) Manhattan defense attorney who takes on Nick’s case.  He also delivers the only (and well-timed and well-delivered) line I remember getting a laugh during the movie, and it’s because he says what the audience thinks.  Neil Patrick Harris (right) is tightly wound and one-dimensional as an obsessed former lover of Amy, but it’s appropriate for the role.  This may just be me but, because he’s made such a big deal about being gay, it detracts from his believability in playing hetero romantic or sex scenes.  It’s not, however, enough to slow the steamroller momentum of “Gone Girl”, where you’re not allowed to dwell on what’s happened because you want all your focus on what happens next.  Each of the film’s 149 minutes is significant.

In the flurry of great acting and colorful roles, I almost forgot to talk about lead Affleck, whose function is to move the story along.  His performance either emphasizes how limited his acting range is or how good he is at doing what’s required of him.  His is not a showy part or performance but you hang on his every convincing thought,word, action, and reaction.

An aspect of the movie I appreciate is the fact that its sex scenes are quick and not gratuitous.  As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, my take on nudity and sex in movies is it’s better to allude to them and get on with the story.³

Other significant releases I’m looking forward to in the next few months are the John Lithgow-Alfred Molina relationship drama “Love is Strange”, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar”, and “Foxcatcher”, which re-teams the writer (Dan Futterman) and director (Bennett Miller) of “Capote.”⁴  Those movies and any others coming out this year have their work cut out for them.  “Gone Girl” has thrown down the gauntlet in terms of riveting storytelling, masterful movie making, and solid all-around acting.

DPW

October 7, 2014

I have to mention how the twist in Fincher’s 1999 “The Fight Club” completely negated everything that happened before it and ruined the movie for me.  I couldn’t suspend disbelief enough to accept that not only was Edward Norton’s character fist fighting with himself but that other people watched him do it and acted as though he was fighting someone else.

¹ Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is certainly Oscar-caliber but it released much earlier in the year, which I hope doesn’t hurt its chances during the awards season.

² Wilson was let go from SNL after a year and a half and doesn’t seem to be hurt by it at all, getting a lot of work on TV.  The online speculation at the time was she was let go because she didn’t lose the weight producers asked her to.  Whatever the reason, she seems to be doing well and her performance in this film may be a step toward a promising career in film.

³ I have a buddy who says movie sex scenes should be as realistic as possible because “that’s what really happens.”  He and I differ because I don’t care about what “really happens” sexually with other people, on film or in reality.

⁴ Having wrestled in high school and still being a follower of the sport (not pro wrestling, like WWF, which is not a sport at all), I’m familiar with the 1996 murder of Olympic Gold Medalist Dave Schultz by John Eleuthère du Pont,  the sponsor of Schultz’s wrestling team, Foxcatcher.  I was surprised to find out it was being put on the big screen and look forward to seeing the story fleshed out in a major film release.  In addition to the story itself, it should be fascinating to see Steve Carrell in a serious (and seriously demented) role.

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