MOVIE REVIEW: Gone Girl

CRUCIFIED BY THE MEDIA: Nick Dunne (Affleck) at a press conference for his missing celebrity wife, Amy (Pike) in David Fincher's disturbing thriller, Gone Girl.

CRUCIFIED BY THE MEDIA: Nick Dunne (Affleck) at a press conference for his missing celebrity wife, Amy (Pike) in David Fincher's disturbing thriller, Gone Girl.

Published Oct 10, 2014

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GONE GIRL

DIRECTOR: David Fincher

CAST: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon

CLASSIFICATION: LSV

RUNNING TIME: 145 minutes

RATING: ***

 

 

 

WITH the internationally televised trial of Oscar Pistorius and the trial of British businessman and Shrien Dewani, who is charged with orchestrating the murder of his new wife Anni, under way, Gone Girl will have an almost surreal feel – in particular regarding the media circus – for South Africans.

The thriller unfolds with Nick Dunne (Affleck) calling the police after arriving home to find signs of a struggle and Amy (Pike), his wife of almost five years, missing.

While Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) suspects foul play, she isn’t as hasty in jumping to conclusions as her colleague Detective Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit), who pegs Nick as the main suspect.

Through flashbacks narrated by a presumed-dead Amy, the audience become totally invested in her world and the upper-crust society life she leads. The epitome of perfection – as a dutiful wife and daughter – she fast becomes America’s missing sweetheart and Nick… well, the most hated man.

His case isn’t helped by the discovery of Amy’s semi-torched diary, thanks to the riddles she left behind, which paints a heart-breaking picture of a once blissful marriage soured by financial and familial issues, abuse, betrayal, lies and fear. Her history of abusive relationships – especially with her wealthy stalker ex, Desi Collings (Harris), has America’s bleeding hearts baying for the blood of “her murderer”.

And that’s where the plot thickens. Adopting a truth-is- stranger-than-fiction twist, Gone Girl meanders down a path of disturbing mind games, dangerous passions and unbridled fury as the red herrings in Amy’s story come to light. But proving it in the eye of such a media storm doesn’t bode well for the real victim – Nick.

And that’s where Fincher’s mastery for storytelling is at its finest. With fêted offerings like Se7en, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he has established his modus operandi for avant-garde storytelling. I’m sure author Gillian Flynn would commend him for casting Affleck and Pike to bring her fallible characters to life.

Affleck is matchless in his depiction of a shallow, emotionally-barren and unfaithful husband. And he plays that did-he-or-didn’t-he ambiguity flawlessly. The scenes with his twin sister offer an interesting paradox to his smug rendering in the media.

Pike is exceptional in her role and it is a demanding one at that. On the one hand, she inhabits the psyche of a gorgeous, caring and altruistic human being to everyone around her. And in the second half of the movie, she is a borderline narcissist, who is manipulative, deadly and unrepentant in doing what it takes to get what she wants.

Tyler Perry is commanding as Nick’s infamous attorney, Tanner Bolt. As much as I love Harris in How I Met Your Mother, his besotted straight guy steals from the legitimacy of the story.

Although the movie could have done with tighter editing, the third major character in the film – the predatory media and their proclivity to break news with the spontaneity of a lion among a herd of wildebeest – proved an interesting albeit almost satirical underlying theme.

Be warned – this movie is a mindf**k. It is a dark, twisted, psychologically beguiling offering, where deception, doubt and despair are the cornerstones. And it is skillfully interwoven with an identifiable sense of realism.

If you liked A Perfect Murder or Sleeping With the Enemy, you will enjoy this.

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