Gone Girl
(2014)Director David Fincher (The Social Network) adapts Gillian Flynn's bestselling mystery about the disappearance of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) on her wedding anniversary, and the whodunnit investigation - centering on the woman's evasive husband Nick (Ben Affleck).... More
The Dunne's wedding anniversary seems like any other, with Nick popping into The Bar, a bar he owns with his sister, and then heading home to meet Amy - the only trace of whom is the aftermath of a struggle. While initially treated with sympathy, Nick quickly becomes the prime suspect in the minds of both the police and the public, and he's forced to keep up appearances while hiding sleazy secrets and trying to work out what has happened. Meanwhile, Amy's diary entries paint a picture of true love turned sour...
Gillian, who adapted her own novel, told Entertainment Weekly that the film deviates from the source material, adding: "There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent about two years painstakingly putting together with all its eight million LEGO pieces and take a hammer to it and bash it apart and reassemble it into a movie."Hide
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Directed by David Fincher
Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Missi Pyle, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Casey Wilson, Patrick Fugit
Written by Gillian Flynn (based on her own novel)
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Gone Girl
BY fairbrother superstar
Gillian Flynn adapts her own novel here. Having a novelist adapt their own work for the screen may sound like a solid bet but, as often as not, they can't bring themselves to ADAPT so much as TRANSPOSE - I haven't read the source material but I get the feeling this is a case in point. Gone Girl should have been a comedy instead of a straight thriller. It'd be just as dark but, I reckon, far more provocative, and a hell of a lot easier to swallow, if it'd been played for sick, bitter farce. As it is, the emotional manipulations ring hollow (arguably misogynistic too), and the plot trickery isn't half as clever as it thinks it is. And laughably far-fetched. No spoilers here, I promise, but the "big twist" was glaringly obvious just from the trailer. The way it plays out would have been a pitch-black hoot and, ironically, more thrilling if only it weren't so doggedly fixated on wrong-footing and "thrilling" us. I can't help wondering what the Coen Brothers or Bobcat Goldthwait might have made of the same plot.
Director David Fincher is a master visualist. The camerawork and production design here are every bit as slick as you'd expect. Atticus Rose and Trent Reznor's spare electronic score is really good too. But all this, even combined with the better acting, aren't enough to save a story I couldn't take seriously for a minute.Hide
BY rosiew superstar
Five stars, not a light watch.... More Recommended for those who are prepared, not recommended for anyone else.Hide
BY beans lister
My husband suggested we go see this. I hadn't watched trailers, so I didn't know what to expect. I thought I'd walked into a chick flick at first, but was glad to be proved wrong when the film took a complete u turn. I thought Rosamund Pike played it really well.
BY aleishat nobody
I found the movie to be confusing and a bit all over the place. I have read the book which help make sense of it however the people I watched it with kept asking questions because they couldn't understand what was happening and as the book the ending is disappointing.
BY Sulian superstar
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The Press Reviews
88%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
It's a hypnotically perverse film, one that redeems your faith in studio smarts (but not, alas, in local law enforcement, tabloid crime reporting or, indeed, marriage). Full Review
Surgically precise, grimly funny and entirely mesmerizing over the course of its swift 149-minute running time, this taut yet expansive psychological thriller represents an exceptional pairing of filmmaker and material. Full Review
Doesn’t have the heft of Zodiac or the verve of Se7en but Gone Girl is a masterful adaptation and a superior crime-thriller. As for Fincher changing the ending… See for yourself. Full Review
Stylish, twisted and daring, Gone Girl is a David Fincher date movie: dark, smart and dangerous. If it doesn’t deliver in its finale, its twist, turns and commitment to moral repugnance will leave you reeling. Full Review
Gone Girl, finally, may be no more than a storm in a teacup. But what an elegant, bone-china teacup this is. And what a fearsome force-10 gale we have brewing inside. Full Review
A sharply made, perfectly cast and unfailingly absorbing melodrama. But, like the director's adaptation of another publishing phenomenon, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, three years ago, it leaves you with a quietly lingering feeling of: “Is that all there is?” Full Review
Floating through the narrative like a ghost, [Pike] embodies the aloofness that is both the film's strength and its weakness. Full Review
Dread descends like winter shadows, darkening the movie's tone and visuals until it's snuffed out all the light, air and nuance. Full Review
This fascinating exploration of unreliable narratives and the warped power of the media has enough twists and turns to engross... Full Review
BY Steve Newall Flicks Writer
As a fan of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, the notion of David Fincher bringing her twist-laden, guilt-infused novel to the big screen was a perfect fit. Ditto for Ben Affleck’s casting as the often slimy, only semi-sympathetic and sometimes ill-advisedly smirking Nick Dunne, and Rosamund Pike his missing, put-upon wife Amy. With former Entertainment Weekly TV writer Flynn herself penning the screenplay and the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Tyler Perry and Scoot McNairy popping up amongst the supporting cast, all signs pointed to a quality adaptation and Gone Girl does not disappoint.... More
There’s little room for Fincher-isms here. With a ton of story to get through, his directorial flourishes feel limited to precise, eerie lighting of scenes that are more pacey than he usually delivers – and for good reason, since Gone Girl feels like it moves along at a clip, yet still clocks in at 2 hours and 29 minutes. It’s the most straight-forward film Fincher’s made since Panic Room, and even that boasted the sort of showiness that’s not on offer here. Instead the director seems content to let the narrative do the work, doing justice to the pulpy story by not getting himself between moviegoers and Affleck’s perfectly-suited performance.
Unexpectedly funny at times and happy to linger on its bloodiest moments, Gone Girl is perfectly capable of surprises (including blink-and-you’d-miss-it shots of two leading men’s junk) that punctuate Flynn’s twisted tale with venomous glee. A totally different beast to Fincher’s arguably unnecessary The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this superior thriller arrives at a time when Hollywood mostly seems to have forgotten how to make ‘em.Hide
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